Deny Thy Father and Refuse Thy Name
by MikaHaeli8
Summary: The first in the Blood Ties trilogy. The truth is an unfathomably deep well when the lid of lies is broken. So begins a young woman's quest to reach the bottom of that well, exposing more than she was looking for. Covers many genres.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I played most of "TPL" and a bit of "Jak II", but my knowledge of the games after that I got off the internet and other sources. Feel free to correct me at any point in the story [in a review, hint hint] if I'm wrong about something, or missed it out. Otherwise, enjoy! ~ MH8.**

**Disclaimer: Naughty Dog owns Jak and Daxter, etc.**

**Prologue.**

The young couple looked up at the great Oracle before them. Exchanging glances and clasping each other's hands tightly, the young woman stepped forward. She was indeed young, no more than twenty-five years of age. Her husband, a little older, remained behind, always cautious, always protective.

"You have come to ask about the child," the Oracle boomed.

Startled, the young woman stepped back again. "Yes."

"Is there anything?" her husband ventured.

There was nothing from the Oracle for several minutes. A chilling wind blew, going straight to the bones of the young couple. The young man in particular did not recall feeling this nervous since before he was, well...would "forcefully made aware of his destiny" suffice? In any case, he hadn't felt like this in a long time.

Finally, the Oracle spoke.

"The child will be in disguise and the path they tread you will have seen before. But mark that only one of you will see this child."

The young man shut his eyes as fear grew like a fetus somewhere in his stomach. He opened them again and found them gazing straight into his wife's.

_Only one of you will see this child._

It was the one utterance of the Oracle he had feared since they had started a family. Since the coup that resulted in Ashelin's death and the eradication of the majority of her allies, Haven had once again collapsed into a dangerously oppressive dictatorship ruled by Archduchess Roah and her husband, Archduke Zainen. The young couple were breaking multiple laws simply by consulting the Oracle. The young man was one of the few anti-Roahnites openly proclaiming himself to be so, and therefore he constantly put himself and everyone he loved in danger.

He was brought back to the real world by his wife.

"Let's go home. I've a feeling our son needs us." She slipped her hand into his and he felt an immense calm fall over him. _Everything's going to be fine_, he thought. Still, he could not shake off the Oracle's warning.

_Only one of you will see this child._


	2. One

_**Twenty-two years later.**_

Nelyn's bare feet stroked the floor as her body raced with adrenaline. Swathed fists clenched in defence – and indeed, defiance – she angled them, aimed...and they met their mark. The large, red, beaten bag sagged in defeat, the biggest crease in the middle further splitting, like a smile. She slumped back, rocking on her heels, then suddenly caught herself in the mirror. Her daily workout was over. She always ended with a session on the punchbag – it kept her calm. She peeled off her gloves, grabbed a towel and headed for the shower.

She was 17 years old, almost 18, almost a woman. This meant she would have to leave her parents to do service in the Red Army for a year. God knows she'd trained hard for it – her body was such that she was often mistaken for a boy. Additionally, she was tall, tall for her age, tall even for a woman. No wonder she couldn't get a date. Although, if she asked Deimin, she was sure he'd be interested...but he was more concerned with challenging her to fights than taking her out. Not that she minded. He was her best friend and she loved him like that.

After the shower, she was drying her long hair in the mirror when she noticed her roots were coming through. _Damn it._ This meant she would have to fork out a 20 for a dye-job on her hair. It wouldn't be so bad if one, her roots weren't a stark contrast to her hair and two, hair dye was sold separately. Her parents, rulers of Haven, had (rather stupidly, Nelyn thought) outlawed that sort of thing years ago. A blonde Havener was a rare thing, not seen since the days of Mar.

She stopped.

_Mar._

She shook her head, wondering why that name struck her to the core, both chilling her like the winter winds and warming her like the hot sun. The dreams hadn't returned, not yet. They hadn't made an appearance in a while, much like Mar himself. He had another name – a more common, human name – but as to what it was it was lost to the winds. She'd learned about him in Final School History (Advanced); it was the only thing that stuck with her, and indeed, the only thing she learned. Nelyn wasn't a scholar by nature; that much she knew.

She left after dressing, wrapping a towel round her hair, covering the roots especially.

~x~

"We need to tell her," Archduke Zainen stated calmly.

"No, we don't need to tell her," his wife, the Archduchess Roah, replied.

"She's nearly 18. She's going to find out from someone – so why not us?"

"Because she'll turn! She will turn –"

"She's our daughter. You wouldn't...you wouldn't condemn her, would you?"

"You know how it is." The ageless woman's voice was as hard as her expression. "Enemies of Haven die. That's the way it's been for 30 years, and that's the way it'll always be."

Zainen sighed inwardly. Roah, his wife, the real ruler of Haven – a more matriarchal society since Veger, though no less of a dictatorship – was once again exercising her stubborn resolve. They had to tell Nelyn _something_ without shattering the delicate relationship they'd cultivated with her over the past five or six years. They definitely had to tell her before she turned 18 and did her compulsory year's service. But how to tell her without losing her, and indeed, when.

He looked up and jumped saw Nelyn there, her face wearing a thousand expressions, her hair in a towel. Zainen saw her shoulders slump, her mouth twist, but she didn't move. Not an inch.


	3. Two

_**Haven City outskirts**_

He hated to remember.

At night he dreamt about the sights he'd seen that had made him the infamous character he was. During the day it was all he could think about.

He hated it.

The day _they_ had taken everything from him was the day he'd changed. Not the first time in his life this had happened, but certainly more severe than the two years he'd had before settling down and...and...

_No._

He was constantly on the move, looking for answers, brandishing his questions like weapons. He'd changed his name on the outside, his hair, what he wore, even his voice. He changed everything outside to match him inside, no Dark Eco needed.

He'd dream about both of them, his little family, the one thing that kept him from going completely insane. He'd often wake up covered in sweat, panting or even screaming. He thought about the smallest. _Is my baby alive? What have they done? _And as time passed, "my baby" would be "my child", and even though it hurt him and he didn't think it likely, he imagined his child alive, well, celebrating their fifth, tenth, thirteenth birthday. It was the one small comfort he held as he progressed.

Even that comfort was uncertain.

In the present time from his broken view behind the thick wall of bushes, he heard the border patrol raise their rifles. _Slow your heart down, old man. Slow it down._ He dared not move; the crunch of the sand beneath his feet would have given him away in seconds, and yet he couldn't stay where he was. There was an escape route, but he couldn't see it as yet due to the bushes. They curved round half a metre from where he was. If he could just get to it he would escape with his life; if he could _just_...

He shut his eyes, took a deep breath and thought of her before standing up and –

"THERE HE IS!"

– running for his life as bullets whizzed past him into the Wasteland to his right. One struck his shoulder in its quest for his head or neck and he cried out, more in surprise than pain, but continued running until he found the meeting point where he needed to get to. He heard the patrol behind him, their sinister simultaneous step betraying the fact that they were not, in fact, remotely human. A hand grabbed him and pulled him in just as the guards stomped past.

"Torn! You're still alive?" he whispered.

"Barely," the other man said in a deadpan voice. The younger man could see Torn had not changed remotely in the last few years. "Good to see you again. You still haven't found –?"

"No." His reply was short. It was undoubtedly a sensitive topic for him, even almost 20 years after _it_ had happened. "They're here. I know they are."

"Dreams again?" Torn asked, stepping back. He knew what the other man could do if he was pushed to the brink, as he seemed to be heading here.

The younger man breathed out slowly. "Yes. Dreams. They're just..." He stopped. He didn't want to appear weak in front of his friend by breaking down, exposing himself for the first time in twenty years. He didn't want to tell Torn about the young adult he continually saw in his dreams, one whom reminded him so much of the wife he'd lost. He couldn't breathe a word about how much it tortured him to the brink of tears upon awakening, sometimes even failing to prevent those tears.

Torn sensed this by his trailing off and cleared his throat.

"Yeah, you're right. Can't stop. Can't –" The other broke off, failing to find the words to complete the sentence.

Torn shifted uncomfortably. "This has been long for you, hasn't it? And painful?"

The other man nodded.

"I need to tell you something. About...about your child."

He noticed Torn's voice had dropped in pitch. "What? What is it?"

Torn took a deep breath.

"She's alive."


	4. Three

**A/N: Thanks ever so much to Red and marneus90 for their reviews so far. Much appreciated! MH8.**

_**Haven Palace**_

"Nelyn..."

She turned on her heel and stalked back to her personal chambers, emotionally in turmoil, a thousand questions stuck in her throat. What did Roah mean? Would she _really_ kill her own daughter? What did they have to tell her? How important was this thing they had to tell her?

She was hurt that her mother would even consider putting the death penalty on her own _daughter_, and this hurt welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision. Suddenly she didn't care where she went, so she ran up the stairs, her father following her, and made a fatal left turn into a room she'd been in a fair amount. Her study. Her own personal space, aside from her chambers. She sat at the desk, turned the lamp on and put her head in her folded arms. She didn't cry. She didn't make a sound, apart from breathing. She had to clear her head.

She needed to get out.

She lifted her foot to get out but stopped when it kicked the side and something clattered open. She put her foot down and it stopped short of the ground. _Clunk_.

_Huh?_

She took the lamp and shone it under the desk, which had drawers either side of it. The lamp lit on a protruding square of wood – a flap from the desk.

_A hidden drawer?_

Nelyn was confused now. She'd had this desk since she was ten. How had she not noticed the hidden drawer before? She set the lamp down and reached into the hole that the hidden flap had produced. A knob. She tried it. To her great surprise, it opened, though not without a little stiffness, suggesting it hadn't been opened in a while. She was stupefied by what she found inside as she pulled papers out of the drawer – assuming they weren't attached to vicious traps, as she'd known her mother to have done. If she would sentence her own kid to death then she would definitely put traps on drawers.

There were newspapers dating back nearly eighteen years, sometimes more. She caught a few words here and there but there was nothing that caught her eye, until –

Him.

Her heart stopped.

The man she'd been dreaming about...there was a newspaper article on him. Dating back to the year she was born – _when I would have been six weeks old_, she concluded, looking at the date – it was now stiff and yellowed.

_Who is he?_

She read the article with fervour and increased interest. As she read it, her heart broke for the man. Even though she'd heard of the type of events being described in the article in passing, her mother having ordered them, she'd never heard or read about the detail the paper went into. It sounded like an execution.

She put the article down and picked up another one. The same man again, dated a year later, now being hunted as an outlaw. Searching for his child, or so the newspaper theorised. The child that was taken from him at the age of –

_Six weeks old._

She dropped the paper in shock as she made the connection.

_No. It can't be true. It can't be –_

"Yes, it's true," came the ice-cold voice of her mother – a telepath, Nelyn remembered with a jolt. _Oh shit._

She scrambled to her feet, suddenly feeling both defensive and defenceless.

"You...you _lied_ to me?"

"Not _lied_, just suppressed the truth," Roah replied smoothly. There was one Krimzon Guard on either side of her, their glowing red eyes fixed on Nelyn's face.

"What else have you kept from me?" Nelyn felt her voice rise. "Any little projects you've been authorising? Resurrecting?" _Keep it calm_, _Nelyn. Keep calm._

"Yes, Nelyn. _Do_ calm down. You are, after all, nearly a fully grown woman." She nodded to the guards flanking her and they seized Nelyn, pinning her down as she attempted to fight them off. Roah – there was no way Nelyn could call her "Mother" now, especially not with what she'd just found out – coolly raised an eyebrow.

"You know, you've turned out to be a real disappointment. When you were brought to me, I thought that with the heritage you have, you would be...useful to me, to say the least. But no. Nearly eighteen and, well, nothing." Her eyes flickered to the guards. "You know what to do. Take her to the Chamber."

Nelyn grunted and fought as she was dragged out of the study and down several flights of stairs. It took six guards to overpower her and she was taken down so many twists and turns she lost her bearing – in a palace like this, it was easy to do that. Soon, a heavy-sounding door clanged open, bending her eardrums, the echo continuing for what felt like a long time. The room she was dragged into was pitch black and there was silence. The young woman's legs stabbed with a pain so powerful she couldn't feel anything below the knees.

Suddenly, she was flung down on her back onto something hard, and there was another dramatic _boom_ as the whole room flooded with light and restraints were applied to her wrists and ankles.

A fear as hard and cold as the table she was strapped onto set in. She knew this place. She knew what it was thirty years ago; knew it all too well. She lifted her eyes, sure enough seeing a giant machine with a glowing purple ball aimed straight between her eyes. She wondered if there was anyone else here; anyone alive.

"Do you like it, _Nelyn_?" the Archduchess sneered as she entered the experiment room, her heels clicking on the hard floor. "It's a beautiful room, don't you think? I had it rebuilt in honour of the memory of my predecessor. I'm sure you'll remember his name,"

"Baron Praxis," Nelyn hissed.

"Good girl. You _did_ pay attention in school." Roah rested her hand on Nelyn's arm almost affectionately. "It's a shame I have to do this. But you already know too much, and besides, you're useless to me."

Nelyn narrowed her eyes.

"So much like your real father. Even the path you tread is his." Roah chuckled darkly, ghosting over to a control panel and pushing a button.

Nelyn tore her eyes away from the Archduchess and saw the purple ball glow as it charged. She knew there was no use struggling against the restraints. The look on the Archduchess' face was similar to that of a child at Christmas.

"Goodbye, _Nelyn_. It was nice attempting to condition you..."

The young woman threw all her hate at Roah in a single look before the Dark Eco beam hit her body and forced her thoughts elsewhere.


	5. Four

**A/N: I know it's jumping around a lot but it'll settle soon. Promise! MH8.**

_**Outskirts.**_

When Torn uttered those two words, the other man's jaw dropped.

"She...she...she's...alive?"

Suddenly he grabbed his friend's shoulders, squeezing hard, barking in his face.

"How long? How long have you known this?"

"Calm down, you're hurting me!" Torn yelped. The younger man immediately let go of his shoulders, backing off a distance. "Let me explain...I met Archduke Zainen just after the coup. No, no, listen," he protested again as the other man's eyes darkened. "He confessed about his wife, that she knew of your existence, that she knew...she knew everything about you, even though you'd tried to hide. She runs the show, she's the real dictator. Not her husband; not Zainen. We kept in contact over the years – secretly, of course. He knew I was helping you and kept me updated about your child throughout the years."

The other man backed up against the wall, and Torn saw his Darker self fighting to emerge.

"No, don't! I –"

"You knew all this time _and you didn't tell me_?" he roared. "Why, Torn? WHY?"

"It was all to do with Nelyn! That was the name they gave her when they took her. She wouldn't have been able to handle it if you'd gone barging into the castle and killed her parents in a revenge she didn't know about. She never knew – they completely hid it from her."

"Nelyn..." The other man's anger cooled and faded, as did the struggle with his Darker self. His voice became rough, cracked, hurt. "They named her Nelyn?"

"They did," Torn said gently.

"It was never in vain. All this time, all those years..." He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, his face clearing. "It was never pointless."

Torn's communicator beeped. He looked at the name. _Just in time._ He moved away, letting the younger man have his moment of clarity.

"Red Dog, about time!"

"She knows," Archduke Zainen, alias Red Dog said. His voice sounded whispered, hurried. "The Eagle knows about her real past." 'The Eagle', of course, being Nelyn.

"She knows? Where is she?"

"Downstairs," Zainen replied. "Downstairs, where Praxis used to do his Dark Eco experiments,"

"Praxis?" the other man growled, moment of clarity clearly over. "I thought that room was destroyed!"

"Who's this? Oh wait, don't worry. I think I know. No, the Hawk rebuilt it after the coup. It's...it's now a torture chamber."

"My _daughter_ is down there?"

Torn shushed him. "Where are you? Is it safe to meet?"

"I'm in the palace but I can meet you. Where are you?"

"By the Ottsel. You know where I mean."

"I do. There in 30. Red Dog out." The communicator beeped off and Torn looked at the other man nervously. His face was a mix of emotions, anger and relief, until finally it settled on determination.

"We need to get her _out_ of there."

~x~

_**The Chamber**_

Nelyn groaned in agony, the Dark Eco seeping into her bones, turning them to stone. Every cell in her body screamed in pain. All because she'd found out whom her real father was, and indeed, how she ended up in the hands of the Archduke and Archduchess of Haven City. Understandably, she felt betrayed, and Zainen – her _dad_ – had abandoned her just when she needed him.

She felt like screaming, but everything hurt. She understood one thing: hatred. She finally understood it. She'd never truly felt it before this moment.

_I'm going to kill you, Archduchess! I don't care how long it takes. I'm going to make it _kill _so much you'll be begging for me to end it._

She didn't care if Roah heard this or not. The last sound she heard from Roah's mouth was a laugh of delight as she pressed the button to zap more Dark Eco into Nelyn's body, more than once. Every single torturous time, she laughed with delight.

Even that thought, the promise of vengeance, exhausted Nelyn, and she let soothing darkness wrap itself in its arms, taking her far away from the cold room.


	6. Five

**A/N: Thanks ever so much to Tala for the review. Here's another update, enjoy! ~ MH8.**

_**Three months later**_

Zainen hurried along the street to the Naughty Ottsel. He knew Torn and the other man wouldn't actually be there; it was simply a code name for their usual meeting place. Sure enough when he reached it, Torn and a taller, slightly younger man were there.

"Is she still in the Chamber? How _is_ she?" the younger man demanded. For the first time, Zainen saw scars on whatever exposed flesh he had, making him look older. This man had clearly weathered many storms, but his body language explicitly stated that they weren't over just yet.

"I...I don't know," Zainen admitted weakly. His access and this drove him mad. "I think she's still down there, strapped to the table." He saw a fire building in the other man's eyes and his voice strengthened. "I know she needs to get out of there but let me do it. It's too risky for you two."

Torn put his hand on the Archduke's shoulder briefly. "Thank you. Where do you want us?"

"Us?" the younger man repeated acidly. Torn put his finger to his lips and looked back at Zainen.

"There's an underground passage that leads out to the Wasteland. If I get Nelyn and meet you at the entrance of it – "

"Which entrance?"

Zainen was temporarily caught off-guard. "The entrance from inside the palace. I'll get Nelyn and meet you there."

"And if something goes wrong?" This was from Torn.

He thought for a while. "If something goes wrong..." He trailed off, utterly stumped. "I'm no expert. Follow your instincts." He looked at the outlaw and nodded. He nodded back, still not trusting him.

"What's the situation right now? How heavily guarded is the palace?" the third man asked.

Zainen switched on the map of the palace. Not many tonight, the first time in three months. "It's not heavily guarded. You sure you want to do this tonight?"

One short nod from the younger man. He'd been on edge for the past three months, constantly waiting for The Right Time. Damn timing. It was all to do with timing. He was fed up with time. Precursors knew he'd been waiting long enough.

Zainen looked at Torn, who also nodded, though his nod was a little less terse than the other man's.

"Let's go."

~x~

_**The Chamber**_

She'd had enough. Not only was she colder than she'd ever been in her whole life, her body screamed in agony, begging for relief, and her bones felt like they'd shattered and melted into her muscles.

_So much like your real father_.

Roah's words orbited Nelyn's mind day after day, button-press after button-press, eternity of indescribable pain.

_Even the path you tread is his_.

"Had he gone through it?" Nelyn whispered. She dared not think any thought for fear Roah would hear it. She knew about the Dark Warrior Programme many years ago and of one sole survivor who ultimately managed to bring down Praxis' reign. _That_ survivor. The man in her dreams, which now recurred daily. Were they one and the same? They had to be. Everything, she deduced, was linked to that _one_ man – even her heritage.

"What?" Roah demanded coldly. She couldn't believe the girl hadn't died or at least suffered some form of damage from the amount of Dark Eco she'd been injecting into her these past few months. _Hmm_, she thought. _Maybe there is something of –_

Suddenly, the security alarm sounded, a monotonous detached voice sounding loudly in the chamber.

"Security alert. There is a breach in the West Wing. Security alert. There is a breach in the West Wing..."

"I'll be back," Roah hissed, bathed in the red of the alarm, sweeping past Nelyn and out the room. The alarm continued for several minutes before footsteps sounded. Nelyn barely had the strength to lift her head to see who was coming, and she didn't care either. It could well have been Roah returning, though the security alarm was still going. She looked into the bright lights, exhausted, closing her eyes and wishing the lights to be Heaven.

"Nelyn, wake up. Wake up. I'm getting you out,"

"Zainen?" Nelyn croaked hoarsely. "What took you so long?"

"Timing, Nelly." Zainen flashed a brief smile. "It was all to do with timing." He unlocked the straps and helped her sit up. She rubbed her wrists and ankles as he spoke.

"Listen to me, Nel – you know the tunnel you and I used to play in?"

She nodded ferverently, her strength partially returned. Zainen spoke quickly as he could hear the various Palace patrols approaching the Chamber.

"Go there. Go to the entrance. There won't be any guards there – the security alarm set them all off. Your real father is waiting, and a friend of his. You must trust them. They'll help you."

Help me with what? She wanted to ask, but she nodded, rubbed her wrists to get the blood flow back, and embraced her father – her _dad_ – one last time.

"Find yourself, Jakuelynn!" he said, his voice quavering with emotion. The young woman blinked back tears and hurtled towards the door, not looking back as hundreds of Krimzon Guards swarmed the room. She heard multiple shots and knew there was nothing that can be done for Zainen. Shaking it out of her mind, she let her instincts guide her for what felt like forever, her heart racing in her ears, her entire body howling more than ever.

"NELYN!"

She looked up and suddenly felt a rush of cold air on her face. "The tunnel," she breathed, skidding and hurling herself towards that rush of cold air where she saw two men, one taller and younger than the other. They both caught her and ran out of the tunnel into Haven City. They didn't stop running until they were far outside the border, into the Wasteland.

It was only then Nelyn stopped, collapsed to her knees in the burning dust, flooded in silver light and let the tears fall for Archduke Zainen – a traitor to his wife, a hero to his daughter.


	7. Six

He didn't know what to do. He had fully expected this, but he didn't know how to react as his long-lost daughter collapsed on her knees – physically and emotionally wrecked – and cried for her foster father. He looked at Torn, helpless. Torn shrugged, mouthing 'Just wait.'

The younger man gave Nelyn some space until her tears stopped falling, along with the occasional contraction and cry of pain from her body's battle with the Dark Eco. She knelt there on the hard, dusty floor, her shoulders rising and falling with every breath. He saw the crackle of Dark Eco and hoped Zainen hadn't been too late; that he'd managed to save her from the burden that had plagued _him_ for many years.

He looked at her for the first time. Long dark hair, dyed, with blonde roots – _his_ roots, he realised, with a shock to the heart like a stab of electricity. He couldn't tell her height, but he saw a lot of him in her broad, muscular build.

Finally, she stood up and looked him in the eyes. With yet another shock, he saw, in the moonlight, that she had _her_ green eyes. She was dressed in grey prisoner rags which hung off her body. He suddenly remembered the Oracle's prophecy from many years ago – a prophecy which had mostly come true.

_The child will be in disguise...Only one of you will see this child._

_The dyed hair. The new name. The rags she's dressed in. The fact that –_ He shook his head to stop himself thinking about that.

Nelyn ventured a sentence after a long, heavy pause.

"You...you must be..."

"Jak," he said, a little relieved at saying the name he'd been using for most of his life. "Just...call me Jak."

"You know my name," Nelyn replied quietly. Zainen had told her to trust them, but she wasn't sure.

_I know both your names_. "Yes, I do."

"My birth name...it's not Nelyn, is it?"

Jak's voice matched his daughter's in tone. "No. I...your mother and I named you before you were taken."

Nelyn was silent for a moment before speaking. "What was that name? In fact, what's my full name?"

"Jakuelynn Hagai," her father replied. Nelyn could feel the relish in his voice in speaking her name. She felt that most of what had gone on today – and indeed, the past few months – had brought him relief, but heartache for her.

She considered her names. _Jakuelynn_...she was almost certainly named after Jak, but her surname –

"Hagai was Keira's surname," Jak broke in. "Using my family name would have definitely got you killed, or at least, ahem, 'experimented on'."

"Too late for the last one," Nelyn said roughly. She had a feeling that she knew what his family name was; that she'd heard or seen it before. Still, she asked. "Why? What _is_ your family name?"

"You really don't know, do you, kid?" Torn said, an uncharacteristic edge of compassion in his voice. "They've really kept the truth from you."

"Well, that can explain why they dyed my hair, and indeed, where my natural colour came from," Nelyn said dryly. "Jak. What was your family name?"

Before Jak could answer, or even open his mouth, there was a rustling in the nearby bushes. Nelyn jumped to her feet and felt for a weapon that wasn't there. Her stomach dropped instantly, but she coiled defensively, body still aching but taut. Both men had their weapons out and pointed at the bushes, which rustled again but louder. Nelyn's – Jakuelynn's – heart raced in her chest, and she felt the Dark Eco hammering her veins, itching to take control.

_No. I won't let you._

Jak's and Torn's finger squeezed on the triggers of their guns almost simultaneously.

Suddenly, something shot out the undergrowth, and both men fired.

**A/N: I'm away til Sunday and I won't update unless reviews are given. And I am not including MSN feedback, marneus90, nice as it is :). See you Sunday evening/ Monday evening BST! ~ Mika**


	8. Seven

**A/N: I'm back! Thanks for the reviews. And I've finally managed to entice my lovely boyfriend into the world of "Jak and Daxter". Weehee! Anyway *ahem*. Read, review, recommend. You know the drill. ~ Mika**

"_Precursors_, Jak! Stop! It's me!"

"_Daxter?_" Jak exclaimed, a laugh in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, great," Torn groaned. "Not the _rat_."

"Man, I dunno, but I'm getting _waaaaaay_ to old for this shit." The orange and yellow creature skidded to a halt in front of Nelyn and looked up, slowly, his eyes widened. She recognised him as an ottsel as he exclaimed, "Jak, you brought a _friend! _And a hot one at that. What's _your_ name, sweetheart?"

Jak slapped him on the back of the head. "It's Jakuelynn!" He chuckled, ignoring the glare the creature gave him. "Sorry, Nelyn, this is Daxter. Good friend of mine for a long time."

"Wait...if she's Jakuelynn...why are you calling her Nelyn? I'm confused." Daxter hopped onto Jak's left shoulder, scratching his head.

"It's the name I've been called for almost 18 years," Nelyn explained quietly.

Daxter's eyes widened further, if that was even possible. "So you were given a different name to your birth name. Jak, that sounds like –"

"That's for _me_ to tell her, Daxter, not you," Jak said flatly, clapping his hand over his best friend's mouth.

"Wait, wait, what? Is this your family name thing?" Nelyn asked.

Daxter pushed Jak's hand away from his mouth. "PLEASE let me tell her!"

"You tell her and I'll – " Jak warned, raising his eyebrows at the ottsel, but he was cut off.

"_What?_" Nelyn was aching to know now.

"Mar is his family name!" Daxter squealed before being flicked off Jak's shoulder with a _ping_. There was a ringing silence in the group. Torn's eyes flickered between father and daughter, waiting for a reaction from either as the air rang with Daxter's revelation. Nelyn's throat, meanwhile, had suddenly gone dry. Everything she'd learned in History flooded back into her head. The man, the myth, the legend was – her father?

"You're Mar? _The_ Mar?" she croaked, backing off. "The Mar kids my age learned about in school textbooks?"

"Cheers, Dax." Jak's face ran the gauntlet of emotion. "Nelyn..."

"Don't." She put her hands up, internally running the same gauntlet. "After everything that's happened in the last three months...I...I can't do this." She fell silent and sat back down, drew her knees up to her chin and put her head in her folded arms. "Zainen, the man I thought was my father, died saving me from the woman I always thought was my mother. My whole life has been a _lie_, right down to my name and my damn _hair_ colour." She pulled at her hair as if trying to rip it out of her scalp. "To top it all off, m-my father is from the warrior royalty line of _Mar?_" Her lungs closed up and she closed her eyes, struggling for breath as her senses seemed to fail her.

"Nice going, rat." Torn hissed at Daxter, whom also fell silent, having for once developed a conscience. The former Commander dragged the ottsel back by his tail, giving the young woman space.

_Shit, she's in shock_, Jak worried as he crouched down by Nelyn. For a very long time neither father nor daughter said anything. "I apologise for Daxter, he rarely does that."

Nelyn responded with something that surprised all men (and ottsel) in the vicinity.

"I don't want to be Nelyn anymore."

Jak could only reply with an "Uh?"

"Think about it." Nelyn got up and paced the small, sandy area. "There is little of good here anymore to tie me to the name of 'Nelyn' and the life, the _lies_, the...the hurt that came with it. I h-have one person keeping me to that name but I doubt I'll ever see him again." She took a deep breath and looked straight into the eyes of the men around her. "Call me by my first name...by what you and my mother called me." She straightened up.

"Jakuelynn."

**[A/FN: Would it confuse you guys if I referred to Nelyn as Jakuelynn from Chapter Eight onwards? Let me know; thanks. ~ Mika]**


	9. Eight

**A/N: Early update as I'm out again tonight. I won't be drinking, though, I promise! ~ Mika**

_**Inside Haven Palace**_

"YOU _LOST HER?_" the Archduchess roared. "HOW did you lose her?"

"Er, I'm not sure, ma'am. She seemed to...just go."

"You _imbeciles!_ That's an adolescent girl full of Dark Eco you've managed to lose! Not only that, she's the daughter of Mar, and that _definitely_ makes her a danger to the city!"

The guards shifted uncomfortably when they heard the phrase "daughter of Mar". They knew Nelyn was forcefully adopted, but they (like Roah) did not know her real name, or indeed, _whose_ daughter she was. They were convinced that Mar was simply a legend, much like most of Haven was.

"For the love of Praxis, assemble a foot and air patrol to search the city and Wasteland and _find_ the girl!" The woman sighed, long and loud. "It's possible that Mar himself worked closely with Zainen in securing her release. If you can find Nelyn _and_ Mar together..." She chuckled, long and delightfully. "Well, that would just be...exquisite."

"Right on it, ma'am."

"One more thing." The woman's voice halted the guards in their tracks. "If there are..._others_ with them, do not bother to spare them. But bring their bodies for posthumous experiments."

"Yes ma'am." The guards hurried out of the room, wilfully obeying every command given as always. Roah growled in frustration – how had everything gone wrong in the space of just three months? The girl was supposed to have died during her tenure in the Eco Injector, but somehow, she remained unchanged; rather, she seemed to have _absorbed_ the Eco. Roah knew full well about the girl's father's experiences with Dark Eco and how that had changed him.

Roah had probed into her thoughts. The girl did not deny her birth father and the Archduchess did not imagine she would refuse her name – completely against the precautions Roah and Zainen had taken to prevent her ever knew about her past.

Zainen...that bothered her. Not because he was her husband and he'd been executed under her orders, but she did not understand why he had helped Mar, if indeed her theory was true. When they married – and when the coup had resulted in success, he appeared to be very eager to aid her in her plans. On the other hand, he had changed over these past few years – that eagerness diminished, replaced by reluctance, especially as Nelyn had grown older, bigger, and stronger. He even insisted on telling Nelyn about her real past.

He was put paid to in the most sufficient manner possible. Roah couldn't admit she loved him because, well...she didn't. He was from a "good" family – good meaning wealthy – and he once had morals similar to herself, i.e. ...a severe lack of. He didn't flinch when Roah insisted that Mar be deemed an enemy of Haven and his family slaughtered – the only time his compassion had intervened is when he insisted that the child live and conditioned into the mindset himself and Roah had adopted. When Nelyn turned out to be a headstrong creature, flat out refusing to adopt those morals, Zainen had still insisted that the child live.

"Look what your compassion has done, Zainen!" she said aloud. "Your _morals_, your _weakness_, your _conscience_. It's made a _DANGER OF US ALL!_"

Nelyn and Mar had to be eradicated as quickly as possible. There was no choice. No compassion to weaken her judgement as it did with Zainen.

Quickly found and quickly killed.


	10. Nine

**A/N: Hello to jakxkeiraaddict (I'm not confirming or denying anything as yet :D) and THANKYOU EVERYONE FOR THE REVIEWS! Also, "Jakuelynn" is pronounced like "Jacqueline". Blame my 12-year old self for the spelling ^_^ ~ Mika**

_**Dead Town, three hours later**_

Deimin shot up in bed with a start, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. His heart was racing in his ears and his mouth spewed little grunts, as if he'd just been running from something terrifying. He'd had a nightmare, the first in many years, and it was to do with Nelyn, whom he'd known since they were both small.

In his dream, Nelyn was in trouble. She had escaped from the Palace where she was being held in some huge, dark room with a big machine over her. The Archduke had gotten mixed up somehow, and had been killed by the wave of Krimzon Guards. There was a tall blonde man in his late forties and an older, shorter one with faded Krimzon Guard tattoos on his exposed flesh. Nelyn had gone through the Palace tunnel with them to the outskirts of Haven. Whether the two strange men were working for the Archduchess or the Underground, Deimin didn't know, but he knew that Nelyn was in danger.

He calmed his breathing and heartbeat down and took a quick shower before joining his mother Nuala for breakfast. She was a clairvoyant and this "gift", if one could call it that, had been passed on to her son; she often knew when a foreshadowing dream had come to him the second she saw him the following morning.

"It was about Nelyn," Deimin explained, clearing up any questions. "She...she's in danger."

Without saying a word, Nuala handed him the morning paper. On the front in big bold letters was the word "TRAITOR!" With a shock, Deimin saw that this traitor was, in fact, Nelyn. He skimmed over the article, catching only a few words here and there, but one sentence made him stop skimming altogether. His black eyes widened.

"'It is believed that _Mar_ was involved in Nelyn's liberation'?" He put the paper down, a sense of urgency wrapping around his veins. "I have to help her."

"Deimin, no, it's too dangerous!"

"Mama, please." Deimin looked his mother in the eyes. "You know yourself when a vision comes up you cannot run from it. This one involves _Nelyn_. You know how much she means to me."

Nuala knew all too well. She had seen her son's feelings for the Archduchess' daughter accelerate in growth over the past four years. He _was_ eighteen years old after all – an adult. She could no longer tell him what to do.

"Go," she said reluctantly, remembering saying the same thing to his father almost twenty years ago, when she was unknowingly expecting Deimin. "Keep her safe for as long as you can." She shut her eyes as her only son kissed her on the cheek, hearing his footsteps run back up the stairs. His father had never returned and she feared that neither would he. Destiny was destiny, however, and she could not control its outcome.

~x~

Deimin slung some things in a bag – some weapons, a change of clothes, some food he'd stashed away, well hidden from a sudden search should it happen. Krimzon raids were known to have happened in the city over the past twenty years. People were killed during those raids, and not a lot was taken. Deimin had a secret theory that they weren't for any real reason other than to satisfy the Archduchess' bloodlust, but he dared not voice these thoughts out loud.

He looked around the room he'd played, slept, ate and worked in for his entire existence and left it for the last time. He never looked back as he left the house where his family were –

"Hey you! Boy!"

_A Krimzon Guard. Shit._

"What is your business?"

Deimin swallowed, betraying his nervousness. "I'm off to see my aunt. She lives on the other side of Haven City."

"Continue," the Guard stated brusquely, before brushing past him. The young man breathed a sigh of relief and continued, trying to work through where Nelyn would be. If she had done what his vision had showed him and escaped through the Palace tunnel, if indeed she was being hunted, she would still be in the outskirts. Deimin did not often trust his visions but this one was something he was forced to trust.

He headed towards the direction of the Palace and the tunnel, stopping by a couple of clothes shops first.

~x~

Jakuelynn stirred, awakening. Dark Eco buzzed through her body occasionally, making her flinch in pain. She saw Jak with his back to her, watching the Wasteland, sentinel-like in his stillness, his grey-streaked hair blowing in the wind. She wondered if he'd been there all night. She estimated it must be at least ten hours of the morning, which she quickly worked out meant that he'd been there for eight hours at least. She didn't remember falling asleep. She didn't remember any dreams.

"If you'd have told me you were doing that, I wouldn't have slept," she said.

"You needed to sleep," Jak replied, without moving an inch.

"No I didn't." She scrambled up to stand by her father. The sun beat down on the pair of them, already boiling hot for ten hours. Mind you, it was continually hot – the evening was cooler by a few degrees, but still not much. Jakuelynn began sweating in her rags.

"Don't argue with me, Jakuelynn," her father replied, not authoritatively, but somewhat resigned. However, something in his voice made her back down immediately and she decided to focus her attentions elsewhere.

"Do you have a communicator?" she asked.

"No, he doesn't, but I do," Torn suddenly spoke up. Jakuelynn wasn't even aware he'd woken up. "Someone you want to call?"

"Yes," the young woman replied. _Deimin._ She took the proffered communicator and typed in the code, walking a distance from the men so she could have some privacy.

"Demon One-Oh-One. Talk to me, Viking Queen, tell me you're breathing,"

Jakuelynn laughed. "Demon! Thank the Precursors. You're alive at least."

"I had a vision, you were in it. Are you safe?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Demon, I promise." She laughed again. "I'm away from the Hawk."

"I know where you are, or I can guess at least. Are you OK for clothes?"

"Uhh..." She looked at her prisoner's greys. "Sort of. I don't think they'll last –"

"Say no more, Viking Queen, just promise me you'll stay there. And can you trust them?"

'Them' being Jak and Torn. She looked at them and took a deep breath. "I hope so. One of them is my real father, the man in my dreams."

A pause. "Just stay there. Demon out,"

"Viking Queen out," she replied, hitting the cut-off button. Her shoulders slumped. Of everyone she knew she didn't want to drag her _best friend_ into her own mess.

_Oh, Precursors...what have I done?_ She worried.


	11. Ten

**A/N: Another early update as I am out AGAIN to celebrate a friend's 18th and will most likely stumble home drunk at 2:30am. Hello to The Beckster and thanks for your review and stuff ^_^ enjoy! ~ Mika**

"Everything okay?" Jak asked as Jakuelynn returned.

She nodded, blinking. "Yeah, he's coming. He should be along soon." In spite of her short sentences, she felt a smile creep on her face as she thought of him. It had been a while since they'd seen each other.

"Viking Queen?" Daxter piped up.

"Were you listening in?" Jakuelynn fixed him with a gaze that reminded Jak of Keira.

"What do you _mean_, was I listening in?" Daxter protested. He was a bad liar at the best of times but Jakuelynn made him uncomfortable. "I just wondered...why Viking Queen as a call name?" He put his hands behind his back, kicking the ground, looking for all the world like a naughty child/ Ottsel.

"Look at me, Daxter." Jakuelynn said, crouching down. "I'm six and a half foot tall, built like a man and..." She pushed back her hair to reveal her blonde roots. They were coming through very quickly. "The Vikings of millennia past were supposedly tall, well-built and blonde. Maybe not all, but that was the general consensus,"

"Sorry...that would be my fault," Jak smiled wryly. "The whole 'tall, blonde and intimidating' thing,"

"It comes in handy when people underestimate you, that's for sure," Jakuelynn chuckled. She felt more relaxed now she knew Deimin was coming. Just then, she heard a padding of sandaled footsteps behind her. She turned to see Deimin, grinning sheepishly and carrying clothes.

"Hey – OOF! Nel...bones...crushing...dying...can't breathe..." Deimin wheezed as his best friend greeted him with something similar to a bear hug.

"Sorry, Day." Jakuelynn/ Nelyn apologised, helping her friend up and dusting him down. His eyes travelled from her to the tall, blonde man a distance away. He looked at her questioningly. "Oh. Sorry. Deimin, this is...Jak, my real father. Jak, this is Deimin, my best friend since we were both small,"

"Good to meet you, Deimin." His handshake was firm, Deimin noted. He couldn't say anything in response, finally noting the striking similarities between Nelyn and Jak, not least that there was barely half a head between their height differences.

"Torn," the named man introduced himself as, nodding in greeting. Deimin nodded back, acknowledging the greeting.

"This is Daxter," Jak said with a chuckle. The Ottsel was, of course, eyeing Deimin with a wary regard. "Dax, it's fine, Jakuelynn said he can be trusted."

"_Jakuelynn?_" Deimin repeated with astonishment. "Who's Jakuelynn?" He turned to look at his best friend, who held her hand up sheepishly. "So your real name isn't Nelyn? It's Jakuelynn?"

She nodded.

Deimin was so confused, he couldn't speak.

Jakuelynn laughed. "It's a long story. Goes back almost eighteen years." Her father nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which..." She turned to her father. "How did I end up in the hands of Roah and Zainen?"

Jak closed his eyes, his mood dipping. He'd prepared himself for this day; hell, he'd dreamed about it so often, he should be immune to it, but he wasn't.

"You want to know now?"

"Why not? May never get another chance. As...as long as it's okay with you, that is." She hesitated, waiting on Jak's reaction, as they all were.

"You may want to sit down," Jak said, taking a deep breath and beginning the story of their lives.


	12. Eleven

**A/N: Thanks to the ever-reliable marneus for the review. The rest of you, where were you? If you're living it up under very hot sun I'll understand, but otherwise you have no excuse XD. In 3****rd**** person because that's my favourite POV.**

**Enjoy. ~ Mika**

**PS: PLEASE REVIEW (on here). Please. Or my heart will break. And I won't update any more.**

_**Just under eighteen years ago. Haven City**_

Jak breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his home with the lights burning at the windows. It was late – _he_ was late – and he was desperate to see his wife, son and newborn daughter. Keira had wanted a daughter for years, and sure enough, six weeks previously, she'd given birth to one. The only thing Jak regretted was that he was not present at the birth, having left just a few weeks earlier to once again save the world.

He pushed open the door to see Keira with their baby – Jakuelynn, he remembered – in her arms. He felt a rush of simultaneous pride and love for the pair of them, especially when Keira greeted him with the kind of kiss that left him breathless.

"Where's Damas?" he whispered. He remembered his six-year old son's heartbroken face when he'd left two months ago, and he promised he'd resolve that as soon as he got home.

"In bed," she whispered back. "I think he's asleep. He's missed you, Jak."

Her husband sighed, nodding.

"Here," she said, passing the baby into his arms. "It's about time you met Jakuelynn. She is your daughter, after all." She chuckled, handing the snuffling bundle to him.

He took the bundle and held his baby in his arms, gazing at her as she emerged from the blankets like a flower opening in Spring. She stirred, wrapping her tiny fingers around his thumb; he fell in love with her the second she did. She had tiny wisps of blonde on her scalp and her eyes, which she opened almost as soon as she was passed into her father's arms, were a deep blue reminiscent of his own. Suddenly, he was aware of why Keira had named her after him.

"Hey, Jakuelynn," he whispered. She gurgled happily in his arms, matching Keira's bubbling laugh from the kitchen. He began swaying as tiredness suddenly overtook him.

"Sit down, you look like you're going to faint," she said. "Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?"

Before he could answer, his ears picked up the sound of heavy, approaching footsteps. His heart sank; he knew that sound. Keira whipped her head round, looking at him with panic in her eyes. She scurried over silently, took Jakuelynn and disappeared to the upper level of the small house. Jak drew his Morph Gun out from behind him and aimed at the door. His heart pounded, his breathing getting louder. He heard Damas' sleepy voice followed by Keira's hushed tone. The family stayed where they were for what felt like hours until Keira, Jakuelynn in her arms and little Damas clutching her crop trousers, appeared in Jak's view. He nodded and was just about to slide the gun back in its holster when about twenty or thirty Krimzon Guards burst into the house, taking the door with them. Strangely, they didn't fire instantly as they usually did; rather, they pointed their weapons at Jak until a command was ordered to lower them.

A woman crossed regally into the room, a half-smile on her face. Jak recognised her instantly – whom in Haven City didn't? – and as he did he could feel the Dark Eco in his system pulsing.

"So _this_ is the home of the great _Mar?_ The man, the myth, the legend?" She cackled. "And oh, look, you _bred_." She put a knife-edge emphasis on the last work, raising Jak's hackles.

"What do you want, Roah?" Keira shouted, drawing a shaking, wide-eyed Damas behind her back. Her husband flashed a warning look at her; a look that said, _Let me deal with this._

The Archduchess ignored her. "I hear you're one of the last anti-Roahnites around. Yes?"

Jak narrowed his eyes at her. This woman had executed many of his friends and allies, and he was not going to answer her.

"Well, anyway," she continued, "I'm here to personally arrest you for multiple crimes against Haven City, including incitement to violence and breaking the Laws of Speech."

_On the contrary, you should be arrested for those charges,_ Jak thought, growling through his teeth. "Fine. Just let my family go,"

"Now, you know we can't do that. There's a risk that comes with it. I'll tell you what, though..." The Archduchess pretended to think for a moment. "If you come quietly I'll let the children live. Oh, and no, I shouldn't be arrested for those charges. After all, everything I do is purely for Haven's interest." Her voice went from knife-sharp to honey-sweet in that sentence.

Jak stopped breathing. Not only could this woman _evidently_ read minds, she was also a crafty bitch. She knew him all too well; she knew his stubbornness would clash with his morals on those grounds.

"You have five seconds to decide. Or I shoot them all."

_My entire family or my wife. _He locked his eyes with Keira. _Go_, her eyes said. _Go._ He took a deep breath, swallowing his pride for the first time in his thirty years. _I love you_, he tried to message to her through his own eyes. He turned his vision back to the Archduchess.

"Okay. Okay." He slowly put the gun down and his hands up. "You've got me. I'll come quietly. Just let my children go."

The Archduchess nodded at the Commander, who uttered only one word.

"_Now._"

There was an explosion of guns and blinding lights. Jak ducked several of them trying to reach his family, skidding across the floor as he did. He heard screams and cries, though he wasn't entirely sure whom was screaming. His soul seemed to detach from his body as he reached them, seeing them slumping to the floor, feeling a bullet make its home in his stomach. As he fell, he reached out for them, and everything seemed to slow down. His ears were ringing. He saw Roah prise Jakuelynn, whom was howling by now, from Keira's unresisting arms.

"No..." he whispered.

"Thank you, Mar. She will be useful to me." Roah looked at him with ice-cold eyes, a mocking sneer on her lips and in her voice as blood reached her feet. "She is your daughter, after all..."

She swept out the shattered house, leaving Jak sprawled on the floor, pulling himself towards the bodies of Keira and Damas.

"Jak..." his wife croaked.

"Keira?" he panted, a small flame of hope lighting up. His voice cracked when he saw how badly injured she was, doubling when he realised she wouldn't die quickly. "Keira, no..."

His wife's green eyes filled with tears as her body leaked blood like a burst drain. "H-hold me..."

He held her tightly, squeezing his eyes shut, ignoring the screaming pain in his stomach as he listened to Keira's breathing get more ragged. He saw that Damas, thank the Precursors, had immediately died. He didn't have to go through the agony his mother was clearly going through. Jak loosened his grip, lowering her so he could see her.

"End it," she whispered. "End me,"

"I can't," he whispered back. "N-not you. Anyone but you."

"Please," she protested hoarsely. She put her hand on his cheek and smiled. "My hero. Damas' hero. You can do it."

He tried and failed to force down the lump in his throat. His vision was blurry; he couldn't see Keira. He blinked and tears spilled down his cheeks.

"Find her, Jak," she whispered. "Find our baby." She gave a small nod towards the much smaller gun on her hip. He slid it out and pointed it at her, noticing his hand was shaking badly. He locked eyes with her as he put the gun closer to her heart in case he missed. After all, he didn't want to put her in more pain.

"I love you, Jak Mar," she whispered.

"I love you too, Keira Hagai," he whispered back, voice breaking. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, knocked back by the force of the bullet. When he opened his eyes, he saw it had hit the mark. Her eyes were empty, the light he'd loved no longer in them. She was no longer in pain.

He dropped the gun and stood up as best as he could, though gravity seemed to have other ideas. He stumbled to the broken door, clutching his stomach, and lifting his face to the hazy moon, roaring just one name before darkness enveloped him.

"ROAHHHH!"


	13. Twelve

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I am not heartbroken, though I know the last chapter left some of you in the opposite :P. Finally got "Jak 3" today and did the first 6% in an hour...it may take me the rest of my life to do it. Oh well. Read, rate, review, recommend (:P), you know what I like. ~ Mika**

There was a resounding silence in the small group. Nobody knew what to say, least of all Jakuelynn. She looked like she was going to pass out as her eyes focused on her father's face. He was hunched over, eyes closed, attempting to breathe evenly but struggling to do so, fighting the strong emotion the story had resurfaced.

"Can...can you remember what happened after that?" Jakuelynn asked tentatively.

Jak shook his head. "I...I don't know. I don't know whether my Darker self emerged or I just passed out from the bullet, but I woke up in Daxter's home."

"He was _heavy_, I'll tell ya that," Daxter said wryly. "Had to get a few buddies to help,"

"Did you ever go back to the house?" Deimin asked Jak.

"I did." The older man swallowed. "I did to bury...Keira and Damas. I swore on their graves that I would have my revenge and find you, Jakuelynn, even if it took me the rest of my life to do so." He looked at the sky. "Speaking of which, what's the date today?"

"Thirty-eighth day of Spring," Torn answered, having not said anything in a while.

"My birthday..." Jakuelynn whispered. With everything that had happened recently, her eighteenth had not only dropped in her priorities but fallen off the list completely. Deimin hugged her hard – well, as hard as he could anyway.

"Happy birthday, Nelly," he said, smiling. "Wait...am I supposed to call you Jakuelynn now?"

"Thanks, Day," she smiled back. "It's completely up to you what you call me – long as it's not insulting, of course."

"Ooh, brought you a present." He brought the clothes out. "Thought you could use them. Those prison greys are _so_ last Season,"

The young woman laughed richly, the first time she'd done so in months. "Thank you, Day, I'm touched. Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get out of these rags." She spotted a suitable rock and ducked behind it. Deimin watched her go, his mind racing, his feelings mixed. It turned out his Nelyn was in fact someone else entirely – not through deception in her control, as it often turned out for his mates and their girlfriends or girl friends, but deception in the Archduchess' control. He didn't know how Nelyn/ Jakuelynn had ended up escaping the Palace, or indeed _why_. It bothered him.

Jak saw Deimin's body language when Jakuelynn left and knew of his feelings immediately. _Hardly surprising_, he thought, _if they'd known each other for so long._ He remembered his relationship with Keira, how the first few years had been rocky – not helped by imprisonment and torture by a Baron and banishment by a Count, as well as the thing with Ashelin – but had soon settled into something more solid, thank the Precursors.

Then he'd lost her.

"Ahh, that's _better_." Jakuelynn sighed happily when she returned. She remembered Jak's story and a sadness settled over her, as well as a fresh wave of anger on that same shore.

"One more thing." Jak reached around the back of his neck, loosening something and catching it before it could fall into the sand. "My father gave this to me when I was your age, telling me to look for his son, unaware that I was the son he was looking for." He approached Jakuelynn, who looked at his cupped hands. "This is yours. Happy birthday, Jakuelynn." He reached across and fastened it around her neck.

Deimin drew in a gasp as everything clicked for him the second he saw what was fastened round Jakuelynn's neck. She took it in her fingers and looked at it, her eyes widened as she recognised it.

"Mar's Amulet?"

Jak nodded.

"Jak, are you...are you serious?"

"Completely." He hesitated, wondering if he should volunteer why. He decided to go ahead. "It was supposed to be your brother's. But, well..." He shifted uncomfortably. "So it's yours, passed down from father to son through my family for many generations."

Jakuelynn was as stunned as her best friend. She looked at him and he shrugged back.

"Wait, wait, wait." Deimin turned to Jak. "_You're_ Mar? The Mar? And...and you're his daughter? Holy Precursors." He clutched his head.

"You're a clairvoyant, you should have known," Jakuelynn joked, playfully cuffing him round the head. "Besides, the story didn't give it away for you?"

"There's a difference between a clairvoyant and a deity, Jakuelynn," Deimin replied in the same tone. "And no, it didn't click at that point."

"Apart from one beginning with C, the other with D?"

"So you didn't _completely_ bunk off school, then,"

"I did not bunk off, Day, I just found better things to do with my time than read books and listen to people in different rooms..."

"Okay, you two, get a room," Torn broke in. Suddenly, his communicator buzzed. "Jak, I gotta go. I'm being called, but I'll try and find you again. You know what to do,"

Jak nodded shortly. The older man turned and disappeared back into the city limits. Jakuelynn and Deimin stopped play-fighting and looked at him as if to say, "Well, what are we doing now?"

Jak felt a grin cross his face. Daxter looked at that grin and gulped. He knew it all too well.

"Aw no, Jak, not again. D'you not remember the _last_ time we went on a little 'adventure'?"

"C'mon, Uncle Dax. What's life without adrenaline?" Jakuelynn teased, throwing in the 'U' word just for added effect.

"Nuh-uh. _NO._ Count me out of this one. Seriously." He looked at Jakuelynn. "Do you know how far your father's little 'adventures' go?"

"I do indeed, they are in school History textbooks after all," the young woman replied.

"Come on, Dax. You wouldn't last a second out here without me and you _know_ it."

Daxter leapt onto his shoulder just as he started moving off. "No, _you_ wouldn't last a second without _me_, Jak!"

"Got everything?" Jakuelynn whispered to Deimin, whom nodded in reply. The little group moved off back into the city, Daxter arguing in his often-grating voice and Jak replying rather calmly. Jakuelynn smiled at the two, perhaps unaware of both Deimin's body language and the unsettling presence behind the large rock she'd changed behind not half an hour ago.

"Wait...why are we going back INTO the city? The city that's HUNTING for us?" Daxter

"To hide for a while, calm everything down..."

"And get a drink?" Deimin piped up without thinking.

Jakuelynn looked at him in surprise. "You want alcohol? At..." She looked at the sky. "Sixteen hours?"

Deimin shrugged. "How else are we going to celebrate your first day of legal freedom?"

The young woman smiled.

"Naught Ottsel it is, then!" Daxter said joyfully. "In...a few hours, that is," he added hastily, seeing Jak's expression.


	14. Thirteen

**A/N: Wooh! Thanks for the reviews (and Becks, I forgive you, it was work, fair enough XD) Chapter 13 already - unlucky for some, I suppose. May or may not update tomorrow depending on what time I get home from the day out in Landaaan with Dave aka marneus. If I don't, I'll see you Monday. Vi amo molte! ~ Mika**

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_**Several hours later. Undisclosed underground safe place, Haven**_

"Daxter, I need you to do me a favour."

"Does it involve me risking my fuzzy orange neck for you, by any chance?" The ottsel pouted, crossing his arms. "'Cause it always happens, Jak!"

"_Weeeeell_...maybe." Jak shrugged. "Listen. I want you to piss Jakuelynn off,"

Daxter's jaw dropped. "Yuh whah?"

The warrior sighed and sat down. "She was experimented on with Dark Eco for three months before tonight. I want you to see if she has a Darker side,"

"Ohh no. Nuh-uh. No way. NO. WAY. That girl can break limbs on her own with these arms. I am not being turned into a Dax-doll by _her!_ Why can't _you_ do it? You're her father."

"Please, Dax," Jak implored. "It's important. I can't do it 'cause I haven't got pissing people off down to as fine an art as you."

"HEY!" Daxter narrowed his eyes. "Uhh, well..." He pretended to think for a moment. "Oh alright. But quickly, give me her Achilles' heel before I change my mind."

It was Jak's turn to say "yuh whah?"

"Her _weakness_, tough guy. Her raw nerve."

"_Oh_. Well, from what I can work out..."

~x~

"So...the whole Dark Eco thing. How...?" Deimin asked as he flumped down on the sand next to a silent Jakuelynn.

"I found out about Jak being my real father and Roah obviously intended for me to never find out. Though why she kept all the information in a hidden drawer in my own _desk_ I'll never understand." Jakuelynn's face fought hurt, and Deimin fought the urge to hold her hand. "She kept me...there...every day. I don't know what happened to the Dark Eco injected into me – my body seemed to _absorb_ it or something. I'm scared something's going to happen and I'll lose control." She paused and looked at the still, black clouds. "She said something else when I was first forced under that machine, something that's stuck with me."

"What?"

"She said, _So much like your real father. Even the path you tread is his._"

Ahead, Jak heard this and stopped, his mind flashing back to the Oracle's prophecy.

_The path they tread you will have seen before_...

"Because it's my damn path," he suddenly said aloud.

Daxter tapped him on the ear. "Uh, buddy, you're talking to yourself again,"

"No...no, I remembered something. That's all,"

"What? What's wrong?" Jakuelynn asked as Jak joined her and Deimin. "What was that about a path?"

"Is this the Oracle's prophecy thing again? Cause if it is, you really need to say!" Daxter exclaimed.

"_Prophecy?_" Jakuelynn exclaimed at a higher pitch.

"WHOA!" Jak hissed, not wishing to draw attention to himself. "Jakuelynn, before you were born...before Keira and I decided to try for you...there was a prophecy made by one of the last remaining Oracles. It said, 'The child will be in disguise and the path they tread you will have seen before.'" He left out the rest of it; that story had been told.

Jakuelynn looked confused. He couldn't blame her.

Daxter broke in in his irritating fashion. "Meaning 'Jakuelynn, your life is gonna be just a _little_ like Jak's'. Y'know. The whole Dark Eco thing, being taken from your family, being the kid of a legend of some sort and all of that..."

"_Wait_," Jakuelynn cut in. "How did you know about the Dark Eco thing?"

Daxter slid his eyes to the darkening skies. _Let the lying begin_, he thought. "Okay, before you go all Dark on me – if, that is you can – I was completely _not_ listening in to your's and, er, whatshisname..."

"Deimin?" Jakuelynn said testily.

"Deimin's conversation earlier. When he asked you?"

"Meaning you were eavesdropping." The young woman's voice lowered and her eyes clouded over. "Tell me, Jak, does he have a _habit_ of listening in on private conversations?"

"It wasn't exactly private, you were a little loud,"

"Dax..." This was Jak. He inwardly gritted his teeth, hating to join in to this charade.

"We weren't that loud, and you were on Jak's shoulder, so how could you hear?" The ribbon of anger in Jakuelynn's voice was growing.

"That's what _you_ think. Hey, I s'pose that's one advantage of being below _your_ knee-height,"

"Daxter..." Jak warned again.

The one thing that really rattled Jakuelynn was the mention of her height. Her voice turned into ice, a stalactite in every syllable falling on Daxter's head. "I'm aware of my height, Daxter, I do not need a rat like you reminding me of it."

Something crackled at Jakuelynn's fingertips and she looked. _Oh shit. Dark Eco._

"I'll have ya know I'm _not_ a rat, and is that any way to talk to your elders?" Daxter continued, completely unaware – or pretending to be – of what Jakuelynn was staring at in abject horror.

"_Daxter, stop now!_" Jak shouted, noticing the growth of the purple lightning at his daughter's fingertips far too late. With a roar, she seemed to grow bigger, her hair and skin changing to a sickly purplish white and her eyes filling with black. One arm shot out, fingers with long black nails closing around Daxter's neck.

"No, Jakuelynn!" Deimin shouted as his best friend drew her arm back, fully intent on making Daxter a new wall hanging.

"Urk!" Daxter clawed at the young woman's hands, attempting to free himself. His eyes were popping out of his skull, the pupils pinpricks in balls of white.

"Jakuelynn!" Jak shouted, a hint of desperation in his voice as the arm holding Daxter tensed up, ready to hurl him forward. "Stop! Put him down!"

Jakuelynn did stop, but not without one final roar. The look on her face switched from angry to stunned as she returned to her normal height and self. "D-Daxter?" She put him down gently. He backed off, for once as speechless as she and Deimin were. She kept her eyes on the ground, unsure of what to say, how to react. There was an extremely long silence, during which Jakuelynn checked to make sure everything was normal...whatever normal really was.

_The path they tread you will have seen before._

She turned tail and fled.

"Now you know, tough guy!" Daxter uttered sarcastically.

"I promise I'll never make you do that again," Jak swore gravely. "Rather that than for us to find out when it's too late,"

"Ehhhh...it's a good thing I AM here, I suppose," the ottsel muttered, shrugging his small shoulders.


	15. Fourteen

**A/N: Evening all! I can now tell you that I have completely FINISHED writing this story – there's another 13/14 chapters up on Word on my computer. I'm also starting to plan a sequel, but will see how this one goes reviews-wise by the end. You may have had enough of Jakuelynn by then :P. "Fourteen." Enjoy. ~ Mika**

**PS: Go and see "Inception". And then see it again because you may not understand it the first time. Guaranteed. Amazing film, though.**

_**Haven Palace**_

The Archduchess smiled as she finally found the girl's thoughts. They were jumbled, confused, upset and even embarrassed. She didn't know what had happened – just minutes ago, she couldn't access those thoughts. It was like the girl's mind had suddenly turned to brick, if only for scant minutes. The strange thing was she couldn't access Mar's thoughts at all. Either he wasn't with Nelyn, out of the range of the Archduchess' abilities or – and she scoffed at the idea – he had learned to block her from his thoughts. She doubted Mar wouldn't be with the girl; he had spent the best part of eighteen years searching for her.

A knock at the door jolted her out of probing into the girl's mind.

"Enter."

The knocker entered. She turned and smiled when she saw him.

"Ah, my Locator. You found them, I presume?"

The Locator nodded.

"All together as a family?"

He nodded again.

"How sweet," she said distractedly.

"When are you going to release my son?" he cut in.

"When you bring them to me, of course." Roah did not feel like dealing with him today. She had more pressing concerns on her mind, such as the Underground Mark II, which seemed to be making a recent resurgence. Now there was definitely another obstacle between herself and the girl. She was frustrated on the slow progress with the air and foot patrols – they had not been able to find any trace of her, not even spotting her head of dark hair from above. She was tall. She couldn't possibly be missed.

The Locator took that as a signal to leave. He felt conflicted for the first time in his tenure under the Archduchess' service. He knew that at the eleventh hour he'd have to choose sides, but he did not know clearly which side he would answer even if interrogated.

~x~

"Jakuelynn!"

_Footsteps. Heavy breathing. Pounding. Run. Run_.

There was someone else behind the frightened girl.

"Jaku...Nelly. Nel, stop, it's me."

She skidded to a halt round a corner and fell to her knees. Someone fell to their knees in front of her, taking her head in..._his_ hands? She looked up, finding her vision was once again blurry. She blinked and looked up. It was raining heavily, but she still saw him clear as day.

"Deimin?"

"Yeah, Nel. It's me." He brushed a strand of hair off her face. "Listen...what happened back there –"

"What _did_ happen?" she asked, feeling like a ten-year old again.

"You changed, Nel. You got bigger, your skin and hair turned a kind of bluey-greyey-white, your eyes went black and you nearly killed Daxter...and I'm pretty sure you would have gone after Jak or me as well. You have a Darker self, Jakuelynn, I've read about this."

"About Jak?"

He nodded. "It's the Dark Eco you were injected with for three months. You must have absorbed it in some way and it's affected you."

"Ah, _great_," Jakuelynn groaned, chuckling. Her chuckles soon grew into a full-blown laugh. "That's going to be fantastic for anyone whom may be even slightly interested in me in the near future. 'Hi, I'm Jakuelynn and I've got a shitload of Dark Eco in my system. I'm likely to break your neck and not remember it afterwards.' "

"Couldn't you do that anyway?" Deimin grinned.

Jakuelynn gave him a look before dropping her head down again. "You know what I mean, Day. Is...is Daxter okay?"

"He'll live," Deimin said offhandedly. "Jak says he's used to it. Speaking of your father, he's concerned about you. Probably concerned that you've run off to the nearest bar,"

Jakuelynn laughed again and Deimin's heart lifted. He put his hands under her chin and lifted her face so he saw her eyes, green as an Eco cluster. She took his hands as if to push them away, then seemed to decide against it. Instead she gripped them tightly, lacing his fingers with hers. He felt like he couldn't breathe, and for once it wasn't because she was crushing him with one of her bear hugs.

"Jakuelynn...Nelyn..." he began, trying to catch himself. "Listen. No matter what happens...what changes you go through...you've always got me. Whether you want it or not, I'm there."

Jakuelynn chuckled and the two young adults rested their foreheads together. "I know, Day. And for that – f-for you – I'm forever grateful. I'm glad you were the first person outside the palace I met all those years ago." _Don't change that, Day. Don't change even if I do._

Deimin slid his fingers out from between Jakuelynn's and kissed her on the forehead. "Come on. Come back to us." He stood up, offering a hand to his best friend. She pushed herself off the ground and got to her feet before taking his hand and walking back to Jak and Daxter, feeling far more secure than she had when she left.


	16. Fifteen

**A/N: Hello everybody! Thanks again for ze reviews :D now, after two lighter chapters, I predict a prophecy... Read, rate, review, recommend, you know the routine. ;) ~ Mika**

Daxter massaged his neck and looked at his best friend as soon as Deimin took off after Jakuelynn. Jak raised an eyebrow at him as an answer.

"Don't say it, Jak. Don't say it,"

"I told you so," the warrior replied.

"I said don't say it!" Daxter ran his hand over his ears, temporarily flattening them. "Remind me not to piss _her_ off again. Jak, she's...basically...you!"

"Only with oestrogen,"

"And bigger boobs. Mmm..." Daxter was brought back to reality by yet another slap.

"Dax, she's _still_ my daughter." Jak suddenly seemed to soften a bit. "What happened with Tess, anyway?"

"I was too much for her. She couldn't handle the _lurrve_ machine o' Dax," the Ottsel joked, but the hurt couldn't be covered over with humour. Jak decided to leave it and looked up to see Deimin and Jakuelynn return, dripping wet from the rain. They very quickly let go of each other's hands and retracted them to their respective sides. Jakuelynn descended first with Deimin following. She looked like a little girl – not that Jak ever knew what she looked like as a little girl. Daxter just looked at them and leapt back on to Jak's shoulder.

"You're back, then?"

One could have cut the atmosphere with Yellow Eco.

Jakuelynn nodded, unwilling to say anything.

"So...what's to be done now?" Deimin ventured, attempting to break the tension.

"The Underground Mark Two," Jak replied. Everyone stared at him.

"They still exist?" Jakuelynn and Daxter asked at the same time.

Jak breathed out very slowly. There was much these kids didn't know. "As long as _Roah_ still breathes, they exist. But first, I think we need to pay a visit to Onin,"

"_She's_ still alive?" Daxter shrieked. "Let's hope that bird of her's isn't!"

~x~

_**East Bazaar, Haven City**_

An "aaark!" from inside the tent in front of the four confirmed Daxter's worse nightmare.

"You lucked out, Dax," Jakuelynn chuckled. Daxter gave her a very dark look. She ducked in the doorway and entered the tent, greeted with the sight of animal bodies, cages and other strange items hanging from the ceiling. If one could call it a ceiling, that is.

"Onin greets you, etc., etc.," said an accented voice. Jakuelynn was surprised to hear that it came from the moncaw perched on top of a much older woman's head. "She says it has been too long, but she is – _aaark! – _ glad you freed the Pied Piper to lure the rats out of Haven,"

"Watch out, Daxter, she's on to you," Jakuelynn muttered before turning to the moncaw. "The Pied Piper?"

"You are Jakuelynn Mar Hagai, no?" the moncaw replied. "Daughter of Mar?"

The young woman shrugged, dismissing the customary "How did you know _that_?" that was on her lips. "I guess so."

"Then Onin says you will – _aaaark!_ – know about the Piper. But enough about you." The moncaw flapped up and curled his tail around an overhead beam. "I...am PECKER!" He swung down in Jakuelynn's face and she stepped back, snorting at his name.

"Vindictive mother," Jak whispered.

"Ah, rat boy, I see you are still living," Pecker said tersely, narrowing his eyes at Daxter.

"Well, bird boy, I see you're still talkin',"

"It is a requirement for me," Pecker said proudly, returning to the top of Onin's head. "It seems to be a compulsion for you."

Jakuelynn was watching Onin, whom seemed to be one whom talked with her hands. She remembered the years she spent as a child when she did not talk, merely physically communicating. Not because she was stupid or mute, but because she found it difficult to talk to people. Speech therapy had lifted that at the age of twelve and she had never stopped talking since.

"Onin says now the Piper has returned, the children must – _aaark!_ – emerge from the ground and return the city to its long-lost ruler."

"Long-lost ruler?" Jakuelynn repeated, looking at Jak. He'd fallen silent. "Wait, is this another piece of my past that you haven't told me?"

"Another time, Jakuelynn," her father replied, sounding thoughtful.

"Wait, wait, wait, there is more..._Aaaaark!_...Okay." Pecker took in a deep breath, his body swelling with the effort. "I am sorry to say this, but if the Piper's skills are not – _aaark!_ – awoken then you will not see the new dawn. However..." A brief, dramatic pause "...this new dawn will bring a new strength to the Piper in the form – _aaark!_ – of one who dreams of certainties."

There was a long silence as the words sank in. Jakuelynn felt her heart sink. _The Piper. The one who dreams of certainties. New dawn. New strength. Awoken skills?_

"Whoo, that's heavy!" Pecker exclaimed. "Okay, a _bit_ of good news, but a lot of bad. Now go. Onin has nothing more for you,"

"That's nice!"

"Ay, rat boy, nobody ever said I was nice," Pecker shot back.

~x~

The four walked through Haven in silence, processing the soothsayer's words. Jakuelynn had inklings of whom the people in the prophecy were, but her father had ideas and a sinking feeling. The prophecies he had heard were largely negative and, well, came true, which is how he came to be where he was today. Father and daughter held the same question: _What skills?_ Jak could only assume he meant any abilities Jakuelynn had, if in fact, she had inherited his abilities. Maybe that was what Onin/ Pecker meant by "awakening skills". _Ugh._ His brain hurt just by thinking about it.

"Ya know what would be _really_ good right now after that seriously depressing trip?" Daxter suddenly piped up. "Trip to the Ottsel. Junior, you are a legal adult after all."

"I take it you're talking to me?" Jakuelynn smiled.

"Nope, I'm talkin' to my dear mama. OF COURSE I'M TALKING TO YOU! And with that body of yours I'm sure you could hold a lot...a _hell_ of a lot. OW!" Daxter rubbed his head and glared at his best friend. "You're gonna take my head off one of those days!"

"Maybe you'd stop hitting on my daughter that way," Jak grumbled, ever the grumpy old man.

Jakuelynn laughed. "Maybe a drink is the best idea."


	17. Sixteen

**A/N: HELLO EVERYONE! Thanks for the reviews...and I finally wrestled the study off my brother long enough to get to 15% on "Jak 3". Anyone else notice that he is in fact a Man In A Skirt in that game? I did. It made my day. As did finally beating those **_**damn**_** monks -_-.**

**This chapter is dedicated to Jacob's Creek and Smirnoff Ice.**

**And you. I love you all. ~ Mika**

**PS: Caladena Bombs, Jakuelynn, Deimin and this situation is mine, Birra is simply Italian for "beer" and everything else is owned by Naughty Dog.**

_**The Naughty Ottsel**_

It was already crowded by the time the little group got there, but they found a spot near the back. Deimin sat close by Jakuelynn, eyes on the door for Krimzon Guard foot patrols. He hadn't breathed a word to anyone, not even Jakuelynn, but he'd had another vision regarding this bar and a Krimzon Guard patrol.

"Day, you alright?"

He turned and stumbled into Jakuelynn's green eyes. For a few minutes he temporarily lost the power of speech. "Uh...I'm fine..."

She dropped her voice and raised her eyebrows. "You've had another vision, haven't you?"

"How did you know?"

"How long have I known you?" she answered, rhetorically. "What did it involve?"

"A set-up. A Krimzon Guard foot patrol. This bar. Your capture..." Deimin trailed off.

"What else, Day?" Jakuelynn probed, her eyes wearing a hard look behind them.

Deimin never got a chance to answer.

"What's everyone drinking?" Jak broke in.

"Let me order," Deimin replied. "I'm not being hunted,"

"Point taken," Jak replied. "Water for me,"

"Birra for me," Jakuelynn said. "Water? You don't drink?"

"I did after losing everyone. I...I slumped,"

"He _did_ slump every night over a bar for three straight years," Daxter muttered darkly. "Caladena Bomb, please,"

Jak groaned. "Ohhh no. Not tonight. You know what you're like on the Bombs..."

"I am frickin' AMAZING on the Caladenas!" Daxter interjected.

"Two Birras, a water and a Caladena. Got it." Deimin scurried off to the bar. Father and daughter looked at each other, respective eyebrows raised. Daxter looked at Jak, then Jakuelynn, then back to Jak again.

"What?" he had to ask.

"I'm looking forward to seeing you on the Caladenas, that's all," Jakuelynn replied.

"Believe me, you don't," Jak chuckled. "Any hot girls around for you, Dax?"

"There will be now," Daxter replied, very determined. He hopped off the table and disappeared into the crowds of Haveners.

"I'm surprised it's so full," Jakuelynn observed. "It's one of the last places my m...Roah hasn't closed down,"

Jak caught her hesitation and correction. "If you want to refer to her as your mother, then...then it's okay. You did spend almost 18 years with her. I'm not going to force you into calling me – or _her_ – anything you're not comfortable with,"

"How can I call her "Mother", after what I found out nearly four months ago?" Jakuelynn interjected angrily. She felt the Dark Eco pushing against her veins, begging to be let out.

Jak licked his lips, distinctly uncomfortable. "And about your Darker self..."

Jakuelynn lowered her head, going red.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Jak assured her. "I had it happen to me too, when I was your age. Younger, in fact."

She lifted her head. "Praxis' experiments?"

He nodded gravely, his face clouding over. "Two years I spent in that cell or strapped to that _fucking_ machine. Even your mother – K-Keira, that is – wasn't sure how to treat me when she first saw me after those two years. Then it got destroyed –"

"And Roah rebuilt it, including the room, for her own personal, sadistic, torturous use," Jakuelynn said angrily. Lightning buzzed around her fingertips.

"Whoa. _Breathe_. I know I got a little het up there." Jak cleared his throat. "Anyway, I learned to control it, and it's not triggered as easily as it was."

"How did you manage? I don't want to lose it like that in front of you guys again. I could hurt you, or worse, kill you. Deimin especially...I don't want to hurt him. Ever. No offence..." She trailed off, unable to find the words.

"None taken," Jak said softly, just as the drinks arrived. Jakuelynn took hers and took a big glug from it. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes and Deimin slid in next to her, setting his drink down and poking her in the arm.

"Oy, Nelly. You're not falling asleep on me, are you?"

She smiled, not opening her eyes. "'Course not. 'Scuse me a minute, I have a job to do." She slid past Deimin and wobbled towards the toilets.

Jak looked at Deimin, confused. "'A job to do'?"

"She means 'go to the toilet'," Deimin translated, just as Daxter returned. "No hot girls?"

"All stuck-up Krimzon Girls," Daxter muttered.

~x~

Jakuelynn shook her head as she came out of the toilet minutes later. It was really busy now, and her eyesight was starting to go from either drink or tiredness. It had been a hell of a 48-hour period, though it was much better than being strapped to what her father called "that fucking machine". She agreed with him, though with an alternative cuss word.

"Hey, baby..."

She turned to see a very drunk patron eyeing her up. Well, eyeing her up as best as he could with crossed eyes.

"You look like you could show me a good time," he slurred.

"Do I? Well, I'm not up for it tonight." Jakuelynn searched his eyes, seeing if he was pretending or not. Deimin's warning about a "set-up" skidded its way to the forefront of her mind. She couldn't tell whether this man was pretending to be drunk or not.

"That's a shame..." The patron stumbled backwards and gazed at her breasts. "Whoa. You're tall. You some kinda...Spargan or somethin'?"

"Born and bred Havener, same as you, only less drunk. Bye." Jakuelynn turned away from him, spotting Jak, Daxter and Deimin in time, but the man had grabbed her and forced her attention back to him, eyes raging. Jakuelynn suddenly became aware that he was only pretending to be drunk. _Damn it. He's a good actor._

"_Listen_, bitch, I don't know if you know who I am, but you're coming home with me whether you like it or not."

He sounded a hell of a lot more threatening and certainly less drunk, but Jakuelynn persisted in slamming the man against the wall, jerking his arm painfully. There was a sickening crunch, a pop and a very loud scream, and suddenly the man's forearm bone was protruding through his flesh. It had snapped like a twig in her hands.

"Listen, dickhead, you need to learn some manners. Oh, and listen to a girl when she says she doesn't want to go home with you, yes?" was her parting shot.

The whole bar had suddenly gone silent, all eyes focused on her. One could have heard a pin drop in the bar. She looked at the trio she'd arrived with, all of whom looked horrified. Jakuelynn did not see the man whose arm she'd just broken retreat to his table. She didn't see him press a button on his communicator, and she definitely didn't hear his whisper of "You're in trouble, girl" as an alarm went off.

Almost seconds later, a swarm of red and black swamped the bar as what seemed to be the entire Krimzon Guard force stormed in, surrounding the whole bar, their weapons pointing at Jakuelynn.


	18. Seventeen

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Past the 30 mark now. It must be a good story if you guys keep returning to it XD. Early update as I'll be drinking tonight (my dear mother's birthday, she entereth her 4****th**** decade of existence today) and I may accidentally post the wrong chapter. You never know. Also I'm sorry if this action scene (or any action scene) is rubbish...I'm not great at them, I'll admit :D. Read and review as always...or no updates XD. ~Mika**

Jak couldn't breathe. His stomach turned over and sweat broke out on the back of his neck. It felt like he was in a cinema of his own mind, viewing the same film once again. This time, it was with different cast members, but the antagonist remained the same. He forced himself to breathe and looked up at his daughter. One of the Guards stepped forward, chuckling evilly.

"Nelyn...We've been looking for you, girl."

"That's strange. Nelyn? She died nearly four months ago." Jakuelynn was aware of the whole bar watching her standoff with the Guard, hardly daring to breathe.

"Don't spring a frontal lobe, young lady...it's not in your nature."

Jakuelynn cocked her head, apparently considering this. "Are you sure about that? The nature _you_ know of – from what _Roah_ told you, I presume – could be a lie. Everything else in my life has. Why not my entire character?"

The Guard – a Commander, she could only presume – seemed to stiffen. "That is blasphemy against the Archduchess!"

"She is blasphemy against freedom," Jakuelynn growled, feeling the Dark Eco crackle at her fingers.

"Take her away," the Commander ordered, and several Guards moved forward.

"Oh no you don't," Jakuelynn snarled, leaping over two of the Guards' heads but not without kicking them in their respective stomachs first. They doubled over – _hmm_, _their weak_ _spot_, Jakuelynn noted for later – and she set about demolishing the rest of the cluster of Guards using everything her mentor had taught her. She used her fists, she used her forearms, she used her knees, forehead and her feet. Even as she heard the other patrons hoofing it out the back door and Jak getting in on the act, she kept going until every Guard was down, taking the last one out by wrenching his rifle off and slamming the butt into the back of his skull. As soon as she was sure they were all out, she threw the rifle down in disgust, grunting as she did so.

Father and daughter stood there, surveying the Guards laid out like a deadly but unconscious lake of red and black. Daxter and Deimin caught up with them, respective mouths agape.

"That's my girl," Jak said proudly, laying a hand on Jakuelynn's shoulder. She looked at him and nodded in return. "Now, we need to disappear for a long while."

"Disappear?" Deimin echoed.

"Yup. Go Underground for a while."

Daxter hopped back on Jak's shoulder, giving him a look. "Oh yay, back to the Tattooed Wonder and his group of chums..."

"They helped me find Jakuelynn," Jak countered. "Well, Torn did."

Daxter narrowed his eyes, hardly daring to agree with Jak.

~x~

_**Main Town**_

Torn looked up at the others. There was a resounding silence from the men and women gathered around the table.

"Torn, many of us have sons and daughters locked up in the Palace or enslaved to the Archduchess," a middle-aged woman ventured. "Yes, I understand they are important for the city's future, if all goes well. But we cannot let our personal feelings further cloud our judgement –"

"Isn't that why this group was formed? Personal feeling against Roah's iron fist?" Torn reminded them sharply.

"Which is why Lei said "further", Torn," a young man noted, tone equally sharp.

Torn put his hands up to prevent any more arguing, or any arguing from beginning.

"When _are_ they going to get here, anyway?" someone else asked, a melody of impatience in his voice. Impatience or dread, Torn couldn't read which, and he'd spent most of his life reading people.

"Soon, I hope." Torn sighed. Jak and Jakuelynn were needed more than ever right now. The pressure of the Archduchess' reign was growing constantly, the tight band of oppression squeezing the Underground (Mark II).

"'Soon' isn't good enough. We need them _now_,"

"I believe you're talking about us?"

The whole group turned to see a tall, blonde man with an orange Ottsel on his left shoulder, accompanied by a taller, dark-haired young woman with by-now-very-obvious blonde roots. A younger-looking rake-thin boy with pale skin, black eyes and dark brown/ black hair accompanied the trio, seemingly at odds to the rest of them.

"Jak, where have you been?"

"Oh, y'know. The usual. Running into trouble, beating up a few people here and there," Daxter smirked.

"Did I _ask_ you, rat?" Torn always sounded like he was squeezing his voice when he addressed Daxter. Jak raised an eyebrow at the Ottsel as if to prove a point.

"Back me up, Jak!" Daxter protested, only to find his lips squished shut by Jakuelynn's fingers. The young woman sensed the air of unease, though whether this was at her presence or the collective presence of herself, her father, Daxter and Deimin, she wasn't sure.

Jak ignored his best friend's protest. "This is my daughter, Jakuelynn, and her best friend Deimin,"

Nods all round. Jakuelynn expected this. She felt for Deimin's hand, a little unnerved. He subtly took it, lacing his fingers with hers. _Don't worry. I'm here and it'll be okay_, his grip said.

"Everyone's here." Torn looked around at the group, a half smile on his face. "Let's go to work."


	19. Eighteen

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews (and Red for the shoutout in "Children of the Failed Dimensions". Everyone else, go read it btw, it's vairy good :D).**

**Bad language and a time leap here. Just so you know. And "Erlaucht" was apparently the proper way to address an Archduchess. I love the Internet! ^_^ ~ Mika**

_**Six months later**_

Jakuelynn listened, but only heard the hollow whisper of the air in the cave and the sound of her breathing bouncing off the walls. Body taut, ready for attack, her ears twitched as a wire-thin buzz sounded to her left. Feeling the weapon in her hand like a predator ready for the kill, she released it in the direction of the buzz. She felt rather than heard the knife sail through the air and slice the source of the sound in two.

A slow clap sounded from her left. She removed the blindfold, seeing her father descend the stairs. She looked over, seeing the quivering knife pinning half of the fly to the cave wall. It glinted in the dim light.

"Good," Jak said, his voice bouncing off the walls into Jakuelynn's ears. "You finally learned to feel rather than hear,"

The young woman felt a rumbling beneath her feet – the Dark Eco stores underneath that she knew Roah accessed for her torture devices were being sapped from again. Yes, there were more than that giant machine Jakuelynn had been strapped to nine months ago, and her father 30 years before that. In her hunt for Jakuelynn, Roah had "taken in" more people, torturing them for information about the young woman's whereabouts. None of them knew, of course, and they ended up dying from the copious amounts of Eco pumped into them anyway. This cave was also a place where Jakuelynn learned to control her Darker self due to the Dark Eco presence. It was part of a complex labyrinth of rock, metal, venomous creatures, molten lava and clusters of various Eco types dotted around – a perfect place for training and practice.

"Precursors know it took me long enough to manage it," Jakuelynn replied, walking over and wrenching her knife out the wall.

"Yeah, Jakuelynn, some of us managed it in mere _weeks_ whilst you take _four months_ about it," sneered a voice.

"Yuhmer," Jakuelynn snarled. In her half-year tenure with the Underground, she'd got on with many people. Yuhmer Krazak wasn't one of them. Older by five years and shorter by eleven inches than her, Yuhmer seemed to think he was the best of the Underground until Jakuelynn came along and seemed to usurp him. He hadn't liked that, not one bit. Additionally, she was female and taller than him. Nothing like a shorter being to be an irritating factor in one's daily life, and one wasn't thinking about Daxter either.

"Jakuelynn!" Jak warned. "Yuhmer. Anything on the water supplies?"

"All open and clear. Torn says they should be flowing within minutes. Jakuelynn..." Yuhmer winked, clicking his fingers and pointing them like a gun at her. "I'll see you later."

"Give me some Yellow Eco," Jakuelynn told her father through gritted teeth.

Jak sighed.

"Jak, I want to burn the arse off that bastard. Give me some Yellow,"

"_Not _again, Jakuelynn, you know what happened last time. We're already fighting a war with the Archduchess. Starting a war amongst ourselves is only going to make things worse,"

The blonde girl breathed out through her nose, her shoulders slumping. She slung her knife back into its holster and looked at her hands. They crackled with a purple lightning. _Fucking Yuhmer._ He had also destabilized her relationship with Deimin over six months, something she never thought was possible. And he encouraged Dark Jakuelynn out a fair amount, as he was doing now.

"You're right, I suppose." She closed her eyes and sat down on the ground, not really knowing what else to do. "But after this shit with Roah's been dealt with."

"Maybe you won't have to deal with him then," Jak said softly.

Jakuelynn looked at him, her green eyes hard. "We'll see."

~x~

_**Haven Palace**_

Roah slammed her hands down on the long table, growling. Over the past six months, the Underground had managed to find ways to ruin her life and her reign over Haven, starting with the mental barriers they had put up so she could not access their thoughts.

Most of them, anyway.

"Erlaucht?"

She looked up at her loyal Generals and Commanders, all of whom were staring at her. She felt herself shaking and made a mental note to take her Dark Eco fix later.

"I apologise...for my outburst. You must understand how frustrating it is." She smoothed her gown down.

"We understand, Erlaucht," one of the Generals said. "What is it you want us to do?"

"Keep searching for the girl. And the Underground too. We cannot let them sabotage any more of our operations." She looked around the room, mentally sweeping their minds. No doubt, no disloyalty. She relaxed.

A General raised her hand.

"Yes?" Roah said tersely.

"Erlaucht, if I may...w-we have already searched everywhere possible. We cannot find anyone of your description," the woman stammered.

Roah came very close to crashing her fists back down on the table. There were already dents where she had done so in previous meetings. Instead, she took a course of several long, deep breaths – with the occasional jolt of pain where the Eco in her veins reminded her it was still there – and smiled icily at the woman.

"That would be because she is with those terrorists. They always...find ways...to evade capture. Even during the day, with my abilities, they cannot be found. But the night time..." She smiled evilly. "They cannot run from me at night. They cannot protect themselves or their friends, families...loved ones."

A silence ran round the room as the high-ranking assembly looked nervously at each other.

"Continue with the foot, air and water patrols. Leave the rest to me." Roah looked round at the collective. "Assembly dismissed."


	20. Nineteen

**A/N: HEY ALL! Slightly early update as I'm watching "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" in about an hour/ hour and a half. Or so. Not sure. Am also very excited and tired and Jak is a bit of an arrogant prick in "3", isn't he? Just realised this. ANYWAY. Here's chapter 19. Enjoy. Please review or I won't post chapter 20. Promise. LOVE YOU! ~Mika.**

"_Nelyn!"_

_She opened her eyes and looked around. That voice; it sounded so familiar. All she could see was pitch black and she was standing up. She had no iota of a clue where she was. The air was cold and she smelt...death. Death and the burning stench of Dark Eco._

_Her panic grew. She was beginning to realise where she was._

"_Where am I? Who's calling me?"_

_Her voice rang out into the black, on a one-way mission to someone's – anyone's – ears._

"_Nelyn, it's me...it's Zainen," a weaker voice replied._

"_Zainen?" Jakuelynn choked, running towards the sound. She collided with something cold, hard and metallic just as, with a sinister _boom_, the lights turned on. Her stomach disappeared as she recognised where she was. "Please, Precursors, not here. Not again."_

_She uttered a cuss word when she saw that she was nose-to-nose with Zainen. It wasn't the Zainen she knew thought. His skin was a bluish white, his eyes looked like they had no irises and he was merely skin and bone._

"_Jakuelynn, Haven needs you. Save it, save the New World, do whatever you can. End Roah's tyranny. I couldn't, so it's up to you, Deimin and the Underground."_

"_Zainen..." Jakuelynn choked, feeling tears spring in her eyes for the first time in months. She missed him with a terrible ache that could not be forgotten or removed. Her foster father reached through the bars and clutched her hands. His fingers felt hard on her skin._

"_Be strong." He smiled, and for a moment he looked like the Zainen whom had mentored her training from the age of twelve. "I love you, little Nelly. I'm always with you. Always..."_

_He faded away, and Jakuelynn spent several minutes fighting back tears and a lump in her throat. Suddenly, the Archduchess swept into place, smiling evilly as she opened the cell door and hauled Jakuelynn out, throwing her at the machine. She landed on it, instantly restrained. Roah's grin widened as her finger hovered over the button_

"_Peek a boo, daughter of Mar. I see you, you're not very far!"_

~x~

Deimin was woken up by the unearthly scream uttered from Jakuelynn. He ran to her form across the cavernous room. She was curled up like a foetus, shaking. Purple lightning crackled around her, making her look like the centre of the plasma light bulbs she used to collect. She was convulsing, clutching her stomach, sweating, but still asleep.

_Roah's influence_, Deimin thought in a panic, fighting his way past the purple electricity crackling around Jakuelynn. He did not consciously know what he would do once he reached her, but the second he did he threw himself down next to her, locking his arms around her middle, squeezing his eyes shut. He knew how powerful she was when the Dark Eco began to take over. She hadn't become Dark Jakuelynn in months, but he still clearly remembered the first time she had.

Almost instantly, his best friend's screaming and convulsions subsided, along with the Eco lightning, which retracted inside her, making her body convulse one last time before a long sigh precluded peace. She stirred and patted Deimin's hands, groaning as she rolled over. Demin retracted his arms quickly before they broke under her weight.

"What happened, Day?" she groaned, her voice once again hoarse.

"You were having a nightmare. Dark Eco was coming out of you in lightning-slash-electrical form. Not to mention you were screaming as if in terrible pain," Deimin replied gently, brushing a strand of hair off her face. She looked at him, trying to regain control of her breathing. The aftermath of the nightmare wasn't the only thing preventing her from doing so.

"You still care," she rasped.

"Of course I do, Jakuelynn. I..." – _I love you_ – "I'm your best friend."

_Are you really, or is there more to this?_ "B-but I thought Yuhmer –"

_Don't talk about him. Please don't talk about him. _"Yuhmer can go fuck himself, Jakuelynn. In fact, I'm willing to bet he already does."

Jakuelynn giggled, resting her head on Deimin's shoulder, her arm around his middle.

"Besides, I promised you I'd always be here for you, even if shit got bad. That's with people as well as circumstances."

His best friend lifted her head. "Deimin!" she exclaimed.

He was surprised. "What?"

She grinned cheekily. "That's the second time you've sworn in the space of five minutes,"

"Jak's rubbing off onto me," he admitted, putting his arms around her. She rested her head back on his shoulder and both were asleep within minutes.

~x~

"GRAAAGGGHHH!" Roah screamed as her probing into the girl's thoughts was cut off. "That boy! Why does he have to spoil everything?"

Creating the nightmare in Jakuelynn's head was a perfect way to break the mental barrier she had constructed around her thoughts. It was all going so well and then the clairvoyant _had_ to get involved. He, the dreamer in more than the literal sense, was the Achilles' heel of Roah's campaign against Jakuelynn, her father and the entire Underground. With his ability, he could somehow cut off Roah's evolved abilities to not only read people's minds but alter them too, driving them completely insane. This was all thanks to the Dark Eco injections she'd been receiving, of course. Not only did they make her look younger, they expanded her abilities and made them stronger.

Soon she would be able to pinpoint-accurately locate people by simply reading their thoughts.

"No luck on the girl?" a voice sounded from her door.

"No," she replied starkly, turning to face the source of the voice. "The _boy_ interfered tonight. I need more Dark Eco to strengthen my powers. Soon I'll be able to find them of my own accord. I won't need you anymore,"

"And my boy?"

"Ah, your boy. That's right." Roah paused. "If I won't need you any more, there's no point in keeping him alive, is there? Particularly as he knows too much already."

The man gulped. "Please don't kill my son, Erlaucht. Please. I'm begging you."

"You know I don't like beggars. Hence why I had them eradicated from the city a few years ago." Roah's smile was like a knife slicing through flesh. "I'll make you a deal. Give me the Underground...and I'll give you your son."

The man nodded once, sealing the deal with the Archduchess, and sacrificing the lives of those with the Underground. As soon as he left, Roah concentrated her efforts on Deimin's mind, the boy who was blocking her path to the girl. After a few minutes, she understood what she needed to do.

"Jakuelynn Hagai, you won't know what's hit you," she whispered, a chuckle underscoring the threat.


	21. Twenty

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Everyone who: a) pays attention to the Author's Note b) is not Red and c) is not already reading it, PLEASE READ AND REVIEW Red's "Children of the Filed Dimensions". She's very sad she's not getting moar reviewers, a bit like I was 15 chapters back. Read it, read it, read it. Also...CHAPTER 20! 8 more to go, including the Epilogue, and then this story's finished :(. Hope it's good for you so far. Read & review or no Chapter 21. Please. ^_^ ~ Mika**

_**The Underground**_

Jakuelynn awoke to the sound of a steady heartbeat and the feel of a warm body underneath her. Her fingers were laced with those of this particular body. It was still fairly dark as far as she could see; only a dim pale blue light filtered through whatever crevice connected them with the outside world and fell onto Deimin's sleeping face. The horrific nightmare had not returned since he'd come in and saved her. Jakuelynn shook her head. _Saved me?_ Strangely, however, it did not seem to be much of an exaggeration.

"Jaku..."

"Day? Day, I'm awake," she whispered, focussing on him.

He smiled sleepily at her, his black eyes opening. "Morning. Good sleep?"

"After you came, I slept better." She smiled, kneeling up, pulling him up with her. "Did you have any visions last night?"

Deimin shook his head as he too landed on his knees. "None whatsoever. First time in a year that's happened, and it's good. I need the occasional break from the world's future,"

Jakuelynn smiled. "C'mon then. Food."

"Aw, wha, _now?_" Deimin protested as his arm was almost wrenched out of his shoulder being pulled up by the young woman.

"You know what my father's like," Jakuelynn raised her eyebrows. "World-saving can't be put off,"

"Oh, yeah, tell me about it," Deimin grumbled, punching his best friend's arm as they walked to the food hall together. "Your father is the most headstrong person I've ever met...apart from you, that is. Do you remember the 'adventures' we used to go on as kids?"

"How can I forget?" Jakuelynn laughed, the laugh ringing like a bell and lifting Deimin's heart. "The things we used to say, used to do. Saving the world only took ten minutes at the most. Now it's real. It's just...it's strange sometimes, that's all." Her mood dipped a little and Deimin took her hand. "Everything seems to have happened quickly."

Deimin nodded. He didn't quite know what to say to that. Suddenly, Jakuelynn smiled again.

"You don't have to say anything to that, don't worry,"

The clairvoyant was visibly relieved. The two got their food and sat at their usual table, saying nothing to each other, just eating happily.

~x~

_**Haven Palace, a week later**_

"Arayel!"

The Dark Eco doctor froze. "Yes, Erlaucht?"

"Find me a test subject. I think I'm ready."

"Yes, Erlaucht." The doctor disappeared, not sounding any footsteps as he left the Archduchess' personal quarters. Roah grimaced as the burning sting of the Dark Eco coursed its way through her body, setting her veins on fire. She was used to it by now, though, and the injections were nowhere near the quantity she had injected _the girl_ with on a daily basis. She _had_ to be dead by now. Nobody could _possibly_ have survived the amount she had beared.

Nobody, that is, except her father, Mar.

Thinking of the name made Roah burn with a hatred stronger than the Eco in her veins. He had always been trouble for her. Eliminating his family and taking his daughter had not stopped him; it only served to increase his determination to eliminate Roah.

Eventually, the doctor marched in with a nervous test subject. Roah barely looked at him as she ordered him to be strapped in.

"He's in, Erlaucht," Dr Arayel murmured gravely.

"Leave us," the Archduchess ordered. She stood in front of the test subject, whom by now was sweating, his thoughts clear but panicked. _I don't want to be here. Precursors! What's the bitch got planned? What's she doing? Can she hear this? Shit. Shit, shit, shit._

"Calm down," Roah icily ordered. "Call me a bitch again and I'll ensure it hurts."

The man gulped, silencing his thoughts.

"No, don't silence your thoughts altogether. Think of something. Anything. A sentence, a story. Anything at all,"

The man dared not be hesitant, but closed his eyes and thought of something. Roah concentrated her strength on the man's thoughts – a story of his family, whom Roah remembered being the first she killed – and pushed at them. He fought but she concentrated hard, diverting those thoughts until they went out of the man's head completely. His face took on a look of panic with a hint of blankness.

"I...I can't remember where I was!" he gasped, pupils contracting in his wide grey eyes. "In...the story, I mean."

Roah smiled snidely. "Perfect, Rhogan. Arayel, take him away." As the young man was dragged out of the restraints and out of the chambers, Roah felt something like a punch in her stomach. The Dark Eco was starting to affect her, but she had managed to achieve something she'd spent years trying to do. She could read thoughts, go deep into people's minds, change their thoughts – including dreams and nightmares – and now she could erase people's thoughts. _Excellent._

Now she knew how to deal with Deimin.


	22. TwentyOne

**A/N: Hi all! Thanks for the reviews. Wooh, this chapter is a bit longer than expected. Oh well. In case you didn't know: Rapace (French: ra-pass/ Italian: ra-pah-cheh) is a Franco-Italian word for "bird of prey" and was stolen from the awesome Noomi Rapace who is Lisbeth in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Read, review and enjoy ^_^ ~ Mika.**

_**Haven Palace, 03:12 hours**_

The young woman dropped off the wall and landed with a silence equivalent to snowflakes onto the back courtyard of the Palace. Her heart beat so fast she was surprised the Archduchess hadn't picked up on it – if indeed, her powers had developed enough to detect heartbeats as well as thoughts. It was late Autumn and the nights were getting darker and colder, making it more difficult to see. It would be Winter soon, and the nights would become perilous.

_It's the Winter of your reign, Roah, and I promise you the blizzards are coming._

Light on her feet and fuelled by fury, Jakuelynn pressed herself against the wall, feeling her heartbeat in her fingertips. She held her breath as two Krimzon Guards passed her, their heavy footsteps a contrast to her own. Keeping herself flattened against the wall, long blonde hair tied back and covered for further camouflage Jakuelynn slipped in, for once thankful for Roah's ever-increasing sense of invincibility resulting in less security around the Palace. After all, why would she need guards, motion sensors and laser beams when she could just read their thoughts?

Jakuelynn swept her eyes around the room – the weapons factory, she understood – for guards. None. She raised her communicator and pressed the button to open a channel.

"HQ, this is Viking Queen, I'm in. Location of targets?"

"Viking Queen, this is HQ. Targets are both in the lower East Wing, five down, twelve across for One and five down, fifteen across for Two,"

"Five down, twelve and fifteen across. Got it HQ, Viking Queen out." Jakuelynn pressed the button to close the communicator, forcing herself to remember where the targets were whilst ensuring her mind was protected from Roah at the same time. She opened the map of her communicator, seeing that she was already outside East Wing. All that was now required was a two-floor descent and a lot of luck.

She turned around, clipping her rope onto the rail. No way was she going to reach the target by going through the Palace, despite what that bastard Yuhmer said about her not having as much guts as Jak. She did not have the best head for heights, which was ironic given her two metre stature, but as she swung her body onto the rope and descended it to the floor below. Once she reached a certain point in the rope, she pressed a button and it extended. She grinned joyously, landing silently on her feet and retracting the rope. It clanged against the railing, attracting the attention of two Krimzon Guards. She moved on quickly after dealing with them, slipping inside the dimly-lit Palace and being greeted with rows upon rows of prison cells.

_Five down, twelve and fifteen across_.

"Who's that?" a sleepy male voice called. His voice rang in the hollow room and, lucky for Jakuelynn, it didn't sound like it was coming from very far. "Arayel? Roah?"

"Roah?" another, younger voice cried in panic. A child's voice, Jakuelynn knew, her heart breaking "It's not the bad lady, is it?"

"Rhogan and Rapace?" Jakuelynn called cautiously. Something moved in her peripheral vision and she jerked her head towards it.

"I'm Rhogan. The child is Rapace. Who's asking?"

Jakuelynn decided not to answer that. "Continue talking. I got told to find you guys." She started moving around the floor.

"Wait, wait, I see you," Rhogan replied weakly. "You're on the same floor as I am. Who are you? Has Roah sent you?"

"Who are you?" Rapace echoed fearfully.

"I am not affiliated with her, no." Jakuelynn forced herself to remain calm as soon as the name 'Roah' escaped his lips. "I've come to spring you out. Which cells are you in? It's hard to see."

A white thing moved between the bars of the cells, waving at Jakuelynn. Starting along the furthest to her right, she moved until she reached the waving white thing. A hand.

"Are you here?"

She grabbed the hand and the rest of Rhogan appeared. He had wide icy blue eyes and long, ragged dark hair, and right now was rake-thin and dressed in the same prisoner greys she was in not too long ago. She reached in her back pocket, taking out a small electrical ball that looked like solid Blue Eco and putting it in the lock.

"Stand back," she told Rhogan, stepping back at the same time. The little ball bleeped three times before disappearing in a powerful explosion and taking the lock with it.

"Wave for me, Rapace," Rhogan told the young child gently. Suddenly, Jakuelynn saw another white thing wave and she moved toward it.

"Rhogan? Rhogan, who's the lady?" Rapace was scared stiff.

"She's here to help us, Rapace, don't worry," Rhogan soothed the child. "Stand back and close your eyes. There's gonna be a big light."

"O-ohkay."

Jakuelynn performed the same procedure on the young child's cell. Rhogan grabbed Rapace just as the security alarm went off. Jakuelynn grabbed Rhogan, ran to the entrance and clicked her trusty rope on to the edge of the window. The young man looked as if all his Christmases had come at once. The child just looked scared as he clung on to Rhogan's neck.

"Who _are _you?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter now. Come on!" Jakuelynn shouted, pulling both of them onto the rope as Krimzon Guards swarmed the cells. Rhogan did not need to be asked twice as he followed her down the long rope to the ground, Rapace's face in his shoulder and she very quickly retracted the rope as soon as they felt another weight. That weight, a Krimzon Guard, dropped like a stone to the ground and miraculously unharmed, looked for the three. They were long gone.

~x~

_**The Underground**_

"You're with the Underground..."

"Yes..." Jakuelynn nodded.

"Do you know my daddy?" Rapace asked.

"Who's your daddy?"

"His name's Yuhmer."

Jakuelynn stopped. _Yuhmer had a kid? The misogynist, self-centred prick has a _son? She drew a deep breath. "Yes, I know your daddy."

Rhogan stopped, pointing at her. "Hang on a minute. Are you Jak's kid?"

"I am. My name's Jakuelynn and I've only known that I'm Jakuelynn for about nine months," she grinned.

"Gonna say, you look like him." Rhogan scratched the back of his neck.

"You're Rhogan. Torn's kid?"

He nodded.

"Your dad's missed you. In fact..." Jakuelynn nodded to a suddenly visible Torn now. The look on his face was indescribable. Jakuelynn guessed that they had been apart for a long time, akin to herself and Jak, and gave them space as they reunited. Yuhmer emerged and Rapace shrieked with joy, running into his father's arms. The young man didn't even glance at Jakuelynn, which she was grateful for. Suddenly, she found herself with nothing to do and she wasn't even tired.

"Want to fight, Hagai?"

The corner of Jakuelynn's mouth curled as she turned to face her best friend. "It would be my honour to beat you, Ghosten,"

"Beat me? You wish."

Deimin's lip curled, non-maliciously. "I do. I _still_ haven't fulfilled my decade-long desire to eat you."

"_Eat_ me?"

"Beat you, I mean..."


	23. Twenty Two

**A/N: Hai, everyone. Thanks for the reviews 'n' stuff (also, hello jakxkeiraaddict again, I've a feeling you'll like this chapter too going by your excitement over Jakuelynn having Keira's eyes earlier ^_^) – am genuinely touched. Usual disclaimers and plea/ threat apply. Enjoy! ~ Mika**

**PS: Jet Board = win, ja.**

_**The next day**_

"Okay." The young woman said to herself, dropping the spanner and observing the Jet Board she'd been given many months ago. "So I've increased the AGrav yield and put a larger engine in...hmm..." She ducked under the open-centred table to the underbelly of the board, tongue between her teeth. "Should do it." She closed the hatch and put one foot on the Board. It lit up immediately, and she hopped on it completely before it took off, zooming higher against the curved walls of the cave than it had done previously. It ran smoother too, as if she'd built it from scratch. Whooping, she ran round the whole cave with it before touching down on the ground, almost smoothly except for the wobble as it landed. She kicked it up and it folded back to its compact size.

"You _are_ your mother's daughter," an older voice said admirably. "Is this why you've been sneaking off in the evenings?"

"Jak!" Jakuelynn laughed, face flushing. "Yes. This is why. I just...thought it needed a bit of TLC. And an anti-gravitational boost so it can go higher."

"How high?"

"Around the heights of a Zoomer with the help of a ramp, but it's probably riskier to reach those heights," Jakuelynn smiled. Mechanics had always been a secret hobby of hers and under the watchful eye of Zainen, she had constructed many small, useful machines to use around the Palace as a child and, indeed, an adolescent. She looked at Jak. "Was Keira – "

"An immensely talented mechanic? Yes, she was. You know, you don't have to hide your skills if you have them,"

Jakuelynn gathered up the tools. "They're...they're not skills. Or at the least –" She stopped, processing her words. "They're not developed enough to be considered 'skills'." She dropped off the tools in the cubby hole by the entrance and looked at her father. "Does _Yuhmer _want me for Eco control?"

Jak raised his eyebrows. "He does. Promise me you won't shoot Yellow Eco at him again."

"Why?" Jakuelynn whined.

"Jakuelynn!" Jak warned, sounding for all the world like a father about to scold a very young child.

"Okay," Jakuelynn sighed as she headed towards the long corridor. "Precursors help me if I reach the end of my tether with him,"

"No Dark Jakuelynn!" Jak called after her.

"Precursors!" she cursed.

~x~

Yuhmer tapped his foot impatiently. He'd been waiting for Precursors knew how long for this bitch to finish with the Board. Time couldn't be wasted, not in this situation. He _had_ to beat her, just once. Then he would – well, actually, saying that he would leave her alone would be wrong. Maybe he'd give her some distance. It depended on how badly he'd beat her.

"Ah, _Jakuelynn_. There you are. Finished polishing the Underground's tools yet?" He snickered, watching the girl's eyes narrow.

"You're lucky I promised my father I wouldn't blast your arse with Eco again. Can you feel it yet, by the way? How long has it been, six weeks?" She smirked, fuelling the fire in his belly. It had indeed been a month and a half since she had first flipped, singing him with Yellow Eco and no, he couldn't sit down without feeling the scar. Not that he'd admit it to the giant bimbo in front of him.

"Ack, get a room!" Daxter piped up from seemingly nowhere. Both young adults looked at him, confused and annoyed in equal measures. He backed off. "Never mind...I said nothing...never mind." He zoomed off.

"Jak's nearby then," Jakuelynn muttered under her breath. Making sure she kept to her promise, no doubt. She found the cluster of Eco out the corner of her eye.

"Ready, Jakuelynn Mar Hagai?" Krazak sneered. The young woman shuddered, hating the way he squeezed her name. It was far too similar to how Roah used to say her name when she was imprisoned.

"The question is, Yuhmer Krazak, are _you_ ready?" She smirked, leaping athletically into the cluster of Yellow Eco, feeling it warm her immediately. She aimed an open hand at Yuhmer and fired, Yuhmer blocking it instantly. _Damn it, he IS ready._

"You bet."

Jakuelynn ducked as an Eco ball smashed into the wall behind her head, taking a few hairs with it. She continued firing and avoiding Yuhmer's balls as best as she could, taking a few here and there but most going out on her own shield. Yuhmer, meanwhile, seemed to have a whale of a time blasting her.

_The Board._

She collected her cluster and hopped onto the Jet Board, wobbling as she tried to keep her balance, fire Yellow Eco at Yuhmer and control the board at the same time. Multitasking was a bitch at the best of times, but in this situation it was a Roah-equivalent. Her confidence grew as she found her footing and control. Using both hands, she burned away at Yuhmer's shield until it was completely destroyed, as was usually the objective of the exercise. Yuhmer scowled as she landed the Board, firing the last of the Eco cluster harmlessly at the wall. It "pfeew"ed out of existence before reappearing in the same spot by the ground as always.

"Wait...a..._minute_. Since when have _you_ been able to channel Eco?" Daxter shrieked at the young woman.

"Since I tripped and fell on a Blue Eco cluster whilst doing some work on the Jet Board a few months ago," Jakuelynn scratched the back of her head.

"Clumsy," Yuhmer muttered.

Jakuelynn shot him a look. "Sore loser, Krazak?" She picked up the board and made her way out the cave, or tried to when she was stopped by a strong hand on her shoulder.

"Whoa there, young lady," Jak exclaimed, pulling her back. "You do realise that using the Board technically counts as cheating, don't you?"

"Roah plays dirty and you know it, Jak," Jakuelynn replied, a hard edge to her voice. "She's not going to notice what I use as long as she destroys us. All of us and possibly you and I, in particular,"

"Which is why we need to get there first," Jak said calmly, both hands on his daughter's shoulders.

"Wait...you said 'we', not 'you'."

"Correct, I used the plural," Jak chuckled before returning to serious. "Nelly, listen, I'm not just going to leave you to save the world by yourself. Sure, we can only do so much, myself and the Underground, but I promise you won't be alone."

Unexpectedly for both of them, Jakuelynn reacted by pulling her father into a tight hug. He hugged her back just as tight, wishing he'd had the chance to do this more often in the past. They nodded at each other when they let go, Jakuelynn turning to see Deimin. Jak raised his green eyebrows and nodded in greeting. Deimin returned the nod.

"Nel, d' you have a minute?"

"I've got more if you want them," Jakuelynn grinned, muttering a "'scuse me" to her father as she went off. "What is it, Day?"

"It's my visions," he said in a low voice.

A sinking feeling developed in the young woman's stomach. "What about them?"

Deimin was deathly white, more so than normal. "I've been getting the pre-vision rush and trance, right?"

"Right, so...what's the problem?"

Deimin swallowed. "They haven't been coming." His voice got shaky. "S-someone's blocking them from my mind. But I caught the beginning before this one w-was blocked. It was a whole fucking army of Krimzon Guards, heading this way. They're coming _now_."


	24. Twenty Three

**A/N: Thanks fur reviews. No rambling Author's Note this time, possibly tomorrow maketh me nervous. Usual disclaimers and threat/ plea apply. ~ Mika**

Roah smirked as she watched the majority of the Krimzon Guard force close in on the Underground. Her double agent had done his part well – and not forgetting Arayel for the regular Dark Eco injections she'd been receiving.

"Now, Jakuelynn Hagai, you will die," she hissed as she watched from the tallest Palace tower. It was her favourite place, aside from the Chamber. She saw the whole of Haven from this one room; she had an eye on what was going on and where, especially with her increased mental powers. "You, your father _and_ the Underground."

And she wanted to see the girl suffer.

~x~

Jakuelynn crouched behind a rock, Vulcan Fury in hand – yet another gift from Jak, who had his Peacemaker at hand. Rhogan and Torn were further forward, being the Underground's best fighters. Jakuelynn had her newly modified Jet Board on her back and adrenaline coursed through her veins, along with the Dark Eco, Jak almost directly behind her. Father and daughter looked at each other, their feelings clear in their eyes. He gave a crooked smile as the entrance to the Underground, so carefully concealed for infinite decades, disappeared in an explosion that brought swarms of red and black into the movement's headquarters. Jakuelynn leapt up and started firing, quickly ensuring she didn't hit any allies.

"Left!" she heard Rhogan roar as yet another swarm flooded in from seemingly nowhere. The young woman snatched her Jet Board, expanding it and sweeping over the heads of the battle. She searched for Jak and Deimin, but couldn't see them at all. A couple of Vulcan blasts sent the Hover Guard exploding in mid-air and thus, out of her way as she spotted her best friend struggling against several Guards. She swooped down, eagle-like, grabbing his collar and hauling him onto the Jet Board.

"What are you doing?" he yelled, fury in his eyes. She ignored him and blasted two more Guards with the Fury. They fell like skittles, their middles burning.

"You're not a fighter, Day!" she yelled back, fending off yet another attack. "Hold on!" She managed to guide the board to a safer place, avoiding Tasers, blasts and bullets from the guns used by the KG.

"Mother_fuckers_," Deimin muttered to himself as Jakuelynn finally found a safer place. He leapt off, grabbing her hand as she poised to take off again. "What about you?"

Jakuelynn reloaded, realising she was almost out of ammo. "I'll be fine, Day. Promise. Just stay here."

Before his mind registered what he was doing, he grabbed her blonde head and kissed her.

~x~

_**Haven Palace**_

"Erlaucht!"

"What is it?" Roah shouted at the speaker, her whole body shaking. It was impossible – she was _losing_, of all things. She felt the individual Guards' deaths as her channel to their minds was cut off.

"We're losing far too many. The force is bigger than we thought,"

"Keep fighting!" she snarled angrily. "And the girl?"

"We lost her, and Mar too,"

The six words that the Archduchess did _not_ want to hear and she heard them very clearly. She gave an animalistic roar and drove her fist into the speaker, destroying it instantly – especially as she ripped out the wires and circuits in the speaker as she pulled her fist out.

~x~

_**The Underground HQ.**_

Hesitant at first, Jakuelynn kissed Deimin back, their lips rather than their fists fighting. A shot of adrenaline raced through him like the impact of a bullet as the fiery first kiss deepened. It would have gone further had the young woman not broken it off, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I...I gotta go," she said, locking her jaw determinedly. She looked away from Deimin, whom did not say anything. Kicking the Jet Board into action, she returned to the battle, where she found her father. Smack bang in the middle of it, as always.

"Where were you?" he yelled, blasting more Guards away with the Peacemaker.

"Does it _matter_?" she yelled back, the Vulcan Fury in her hands finding more Guards and destroying them. "What's the situation?"

Jak grunted as a bullet found his shoulder. "Just keep shooting and I'll be able to tell you!"

Leaping back on the Board, Jakuelynn once again took off, her focus and aim primarily on the Hover Guards. She remembered everything she'd been taught by both Zainen and Jak: ducking, dodging, weaving and most importantly, shooting. It didn't seem like she'd been shooting long when there was a celebratory yodel from Torn as he took down the last standing Guard. The survivors turned tail and fled, chased by Rhogan's bullets.

"Good work, everyone. Let's clear up this shit." Torn spat at a red and black body. Once all the bodies were in a pile, Jakuelynn and other Chanellers of the Underground stepped forward into nearby clusters of Yellow Eco. Feeling it swirl and caress her body in a way she wished Deimin would, she directed her hands at the pile and the red and black was joined by yellow, orange, blue and green. She stared at it for a moment, her mind turning thoughts over and over.

"Jakuelynn?" a softer voice at her elbow said, taking her hand. "You okay?"

She looked at her best friend, suddenly feeling far more settled. "A storm's coming, Day. I can feel it. And it's going to leave us battered."

The young clairvoyant wrapped his arms around her waist in a brief attempt at comfort. He didn't know what to say as he'd been feeling the same for several months. Jakuelynn picked up her Vulcan Fury and shouldered it, turning away. Deimin picked up his best friend's hand, lacing his fingers with hers, and they walked away from the burning pile of Krimzon Guards.


	25. Twenty Four

**A/N: Hi everyone, thanks for reviews. Early update as am going out to commiserate exam results (not quite what I wanted ****) later with a friend. Usual stuff applies.**

_**Several weeks later**_

Deimin knew he couldn't wait any longer. Nobody could wait. The amount of people shot on the streets of Haven was growing daily and the Archduchess seemed to be getting crazier, her grip tightening on the inhabitants.

Once again, he pounded his fists on his best friend's door. Actually, he wasn't quite sure where they were in terms of their relationship since that kiss in the middle of the battle; the eye of the storm, if you were. He had rarely seen Jakuelynn since that time. Whenever he _had_ seen her, she'd been talking to Jak, improving her gun handling, messing with Eco or employing the use of the Underground's mechanical tools. He supposed he shouldn't complain – she'd always had to have something to do or she would explode with boredom, but she also seemed to be shunning him.

"What?" an irate Jakuelynn demanded, purple lightning crackling around her, the edges of her eyes black. Deimin stepped back in shock. "Deimin?" she whispered, the lightning and the black receding.

Deimin's stomach suddenly transformed into a billion butterflies. He couldn't be angry with her. He never could. She stepped back, her body language inviting him in. He stepped in and she closed the door behind him, emitting a long, deep sigh through her nose, her bright green eyes focussed on his pupil-less black eyes.

"Day."

His nickname broke the silence like a knife.

"I...I'm really sorry I've been...I've been ignoring you since the attack." She slid down to sit on the floor. "I didn't mean to, I promise."

"Yeah, about that." Deimin sat down beside her. "What's been going on?"

She looked at him, and Deimin suddenly noticed how tired and drawn she looked.

"The only explanation I can give is that everything caught up with me," she said quietly, staring at her hands. "Everything over the past ten months. The thing with my life being a lie, us, being a part of the Underground. And my Dark side. Let's not forget that." She laughed humourlessly.

"Wait, what about us?"

She took a deep shuddering breath. "When we k-kissed a few weeks ago."

Deimin felt his hackles raise a touch. "What about it?" His voice had an edge to it.

"Don't get defensive on me. I'm just saying...well..." Her words faltered. "I l-liked it. And I'd like to kiss you more. B-but we can't be together,"

"Why not?" Demin shot up on the balls of his feet and crouched in front of Jakuelynn, looking straight into her eyes.

"Day, I'm a monster. You saw what I can do if someone pushes me." She closed her eyes and a tear leaked out of them. "I could hurt you or even kill you, not remember it and –"

"Uhh." Deimin leant forward and put a finger on her lips. "Jakuelynn, remind me, how long have I known you?"

"Almost fifteen years,"

"Cor-RECT!" Deimin snapped his fingers, an irritating childhood habit. "And you've been able to break limbs since you were, how old, remind me again..."

"Thirteen?" Jakuelynn said tiredly.

"And I've loved you through that and I love you now. So this Dark Jakuelynn of yours? Yes, she's a beast. She is a monster." Deimin stood up, pulling the young woman up to her feet. "But that's not you. Not all the time; not the Nelly I grew up with. I could go on but I keep getting the feeling I'm being far too soppy..."

Jakuelynn laughed, more tears streaming down her face. Her best friend wiped them away, kissing her on the forehead. _You, Day? Soppy? Never_, she thought.

"I love you, Jakuelynn Hagai. Always." He lowered his face and looked straight into her eyes.

Jakuelynn smiled. "I love you too, Deimin Ghosten. Always."

Their lips collided like meteors, Jakuelynn wrapping her arms around her best friend's body and pulling him against her own. He wrapped his arms around her, feeling the contours of her body, wishing he had the ability to slow down time or stop it altogether.

"Right," Jakuelynn whispered hoarsely when they finally parted. "We have a whole bunch of Archduchess arse to kick before we do that again,"

"That's true." Deimin took her face in his hands. "You going to be OK now?"

The young warrior nodded, a small smile on her face. She stood up straight, taking her Vulcan Fury and shouldering it. "Ready for anything Roah can throw at us."

"That's my girl," Deimin teased, imitating Jak. He was rewarded with a clip round the head.

~x~

As soon as the Archduchess received news of the KG defeat against the Underground, she'd swept into the Chamber and slammed the door straight behind her. She was more furious than she'd ever been in her entire life and to make it worse, the Dark Eco was starting to affect her in a negative way. She felt it buzzing in her body, pushing against its skin, eager to turn her into the same monster she'd heard the girl became when she was angry. It had happened many times before, resulting in the same: a room destroyed, lives taken and no memory of how it had happened.

Not that she minded, anyway. For her, it was a new way to satisfy her bloodlust. Additionally, she matched the girl in strength and size whenever this happened to both of them at the same time, although the downside was that she wouldn't be able to remember tearing the girl to shreds. It would be a shame as it was the one thing Roah was looking forward to since discovering that she could turn into a seven-foot-tall monster with black claws and elongated teeth.

First, however, she would deal with her treacherous spy, whom had renounced his loyalty to her and openly declared it to the Underground – although not before telling her of the Underground's plan of assault in full detail. As his son had been rescued, he reasoned, he no longer had anything to work for in his dealings with the Archduchess. How it had been allowed to be published in the papers, she had no idea. _She_ certainly had not authorised it.

"Arayel!" she barked over the repaired communicator.

"Yes Erlaucht!" Her doctor sounded breathless.

"Give word to the Guard. Find me the spy."

"Yes, Erlaucht. That would be..."

The Archduchess' half-grin could have sliced diamonds. "That would be the one the Underground call Torn."


	26. Twenty Five

**A/N: Evening everybody. Thanks for the reviews aaand here is Chapter 25. 2 more full chapters and an Epilogue to go... ~Mika**

"_He is the two-face, the traitor, the rat. Blood is on his hands. His loyalties are his name!"_

Deimin sprang awake with a start, once again covered in sweat. "Torn?" he gasped aloud. He'd had a feeling that there was a double agent in the ranks of the Underground over the past few weeks, but he hadn't breathed a word as he hadn't been sure. His visions had told him nothing of it – until now. He leapt out of bed, pulling some clothes on and raced to find the former KG Commander.

~x~

The one the Underground called Torn was living up to his name with extreme awareness. Since his son had been rescued from the Archduchess' Dark Eco-infused claws, he no longer had a reason to stay loyal to her. After Ashelin had died and Rhogan sent away for safety, Torn did not care whom he was loyal to, hence why he had flitted between the Underground and the Archduchess for twenty-five years. It made no sense considering Roah was the one who killed Ashelin, and it had taken him a long time to realise that.

He got up and paced about the room, the full extent of what he had done hitting him for the first time. Most of the Underground's families had been butchered or undergone rendition because of him, Jak's included. Torn would form friendships with members of the Underground, get invited into their homes...and then sell them to the Archduchess like a farmer to the abattoir. Back then, her powers were not as great as they were. Torn was her Locator.

He was deep in his own black guilt when the door crashed open, making him jump. He was then greeted with the furious black eyes of the clairvoyant boy.

"Have you been spying for the Archduchess?" Deimin demanded instantly.

"That's no way to –"

"I'll apologise if you tell me honestly that you haven't been spying for her. And additionally, for how long."

Torn sat down again, not daring to look in the boy's eyes, Dark Eco-black, though he knew the boy had not been touched with the deadly viscous liquid. Those eyes unnerved him more than Jak's daughter did. "I..." He shut his eyes.

"Well?" Deimin demanded, his presence oppressive to the older man. The younger man was not typically a threatening presence, which made this circumstance all the more unnerving for the seasoned fighter.

"Yes, I've been spying for the Archduchess." He stopped. Deimin paced slowly across the floor, stopping in front of Torn.

"How long, Torn?" he said quietly, each syllable deliberately emphasised.

Torn took a deep breath, noticing it was shaking. "Twen...Twenty-five years."

"S-since the _coup?_" Deimin's voice was incredulous. His voice suddenly got hard. "How many did you betray? Whom did you betray? Was my _father_ one of them? Huh? Is that why I never saw him?" He tilted his head back. "Wait." He closed his eyes, breathing deeply for a few minutes. Torn watched the boy, knowing he posed no physical threat, but also knowing he was more dangerous than any of them could guess. "You betrayed Jak, didn't you? You told him where his family were."

"Yes," Torn replied, but he was looking past Deimin. "Yes, it was me."

"You killed my wife and son?" an angry, rougher voice sounded behind Deimin. "You _betrayed_ me to that bitch? For what, Torn? _FOR WHAT?_"

Torn stood up quickly but Jak was nose-to-nose with him, hand around his throat in a heartbeat. Deimin saw the crackle of purple lightning surround the younger man's body and he backed off to the door.

"Jak...please..." Torn choked, tearing at the vice-like hand around his throat as Dark Jak exploded into view for the first time in months.

"Begging doesn't get you anywhere!" the hulking figure snarled. "I begged for my family's lives, but that bitch still butchered them like cattle. You get that? There were so many bullet holes in their bodies, they could have been used as fucking _filters_. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, TORN?"

"Stop!" a distraught female voice cried. "Father, please!" Her voice rang out and finally reached the intended ears. The owner of those ears reverted back to his normal self, his hate-filled black eyes calming to hurt-filled blues as he saw –

"Keira?"

"No, Father. It's me. It's...it's Jakuelynn," she said gently. The image of Keira in front of him faded and he blinked several times before normal vision was restored.

He also realised another thing.

"You called me Father."

Jakuelynn nodded. "We're already waging a war on the Archduchess. We can't afford to wage a war within ourselves. Roah will only win,"

"Listen to her," Torn whispered, massaging his neck.

"Oh, like I should listen to _you_," Jak muttered darkly.

"ENOUGH!" Jakuelynn shouted. Both men fell silent. "The final plan's about to be put into action, and you're bickering like toddlers." Three pairs of eyes stared at her – one black, one dark blue, one icy blue. "We're needed in the Main Room to finalise everything, right now. I am not tolerating any more of your bull_shit_." She turned around and walked off, ignoring Daxter completely. He scurried past her, hopping onto Jak's shoulder, faithful as always.

"Y'know, she'd make a good ruler one day," the ottsel observed.

Jak stared at him, incredulous at the sensible observation. "Holy Precursors, Dax, age IS catching up with you."


	27. Twenty Six

**A/N: Fanks to marneus and JKA for the reviews ^_^ Thought I'd show off my linguistical skills here – Lei Chiama (lay kee-**_**yah**_**-ma) means "she calls herself" in Italian. :P This chapter contains language, violence, a lot of words and three Dark sides in quick succession. Usual disclaimer/ threat apply. Review or I DO NOT CONCLUDE THIS STORY AT ALL! Fank'oo. ~Mika**

_**The Main Room**_

The Underground Leader Lei Chiama looked around at the assembly, their eyes focussed on her in return. She was fifty-three years old and barely five foot tall, but she had been an effective leader for many years and a close friend of Ashelin when she governed Haven. Now she was gathering the Underground – or what was left after the KG attack some weeks ago – for one final assault on the Archduchess.

"So, one final run-over. Listen carefully, I will only say this once. First and Tech Wave, you head out now. First, you take the Palace from the second level up. Tech, head straight for the security mainframe – where Vin is – and shut down any technological security. When the codeword is given, Second Wave, launch the missiles at the foundations of the Palace, get to the fourth level and combine with the First Wave. Find the Archduchess and make sure she is nothing but dust. If this fails, Third Wave, that's your call. Leave no prisoners and nobody alive. Destroy Roah, destroy the Palace and destroy her legacy.

"Remember, she is extremely dangerous." Lei's voice rang out over the crowd. "The Dark Eco she has been injecting herself has not only warped her mind, but has managed to increase her telepathic powers. Keep your guard about you at all times, physically and mentally. Additionally, the Krimzon Guard will number more than ever in and around the palace. Keep that in mind."

Silence from the collected resistance group. She took a deep breath, a tinge of sadness pooling in her stomach.

"This is perhaps the riskiest operation we've executed in our thirty years and I want to finish by saying: It is and was an honour to fight against this evil with you. I hope that by tonight, the day breaks on a new Haven, with no clouds in the sky." She drew in all the breath that would fill her lungs and gave the salute. "Freedom and hope forever,"

"Freedom and hope forever," the assembly chorused back, saluting her.

"Good luck to you all," she whispered as the assembly dispersed.

~x~

Torn did not follow Jak and Daxter to the Main Room meeting, although he did hear the Underground disperse to their respective positions, rooms, vehicles and weapons. Only about ten, including Jakuelynn and Deimin, were actually taking part in the Palace invasion as the First Wave. Ten against a whole army of Krimzon Guards. It was doable with significant support, hence why there was a Second and Third Wave. He was part of the Second Wave, which was lucky given what he'd revealed that night. He realised how stupid he'd been for twenty-three years in his work as a double-agent, but he couldn't sit here and dwell on his mistakes. Especially not tonight. He knew Roah would be prepared; she knew about the plan, which had been finalised months ago...which he had told her about – his last act of treachery.

Once again, executing the plan was all to do with timing.

Tonight he would redeem himself in some way, though in his heart he knew he could pursue redemption for the rest of his life and never completely gain it.

~x~

"Deimin. You ready?" Jakuelynn asked as her best friend shouldered his gun – one she'd built especially for him. It was similar to the Scatter Gun, but fired like a Vulcan Fury and was a little smaller.

"Ready," he affirmed, a wicked grin on his lips. Jakuelynn looked at him fondly. _He's really toughened up in the last half-year or so. We both have_, she thought. He hopped on the Zoomer beside the young woman's and they gave each other one last nod before kicking their vehicles into life, accelerating towards the Palace, being part of the First Wave. There was an atmosphere of finality in tonight's proceedings, as if one of them knew the other or even themselves would not make it through the evening.

"No," Jakuelynn said out loud. "We'll do it. No lives lost."

Deimin whipped his head round to look at her, an inquiring look on his face – _What is it?_ She shook her head – _It's nothing_ – and accelerated more, pushing the maximum speed of the Zoomer beyond its boundaries and capabilities. She wished she had Blue Eco to make it go faster, but it was a bit late for that, especially as they were nearing the palace. The clouds overhead were turning black, which meant the day was sliding into night time. Jakuelynn breathed a sigh of relief. They had the time right anyway.

Jakuelynn and Deimin reached the marked spot on the second level of the Palace, braking their Zoomers and hopping off them. A wind had started, bringing the rumblings of thunder to their ears. Deimin took Jakuelynn in his arms and they shared a long, deep, desperate kiss before breaking apart, entering the belly of the beast.

~x~

In the sole room at the top of the Palace, Roah watched the security cameras as the girl and boy slipped in. She did not notice them before, until a movement from the girl brought them to her attention. In another, she saw Mar. _Aha_, she thought. _The flies are coming for the feast._

The new speaker buzzed suddenly.

"Erlaucht, we have intruders."

"Yes, yes, I can see them!" she said, a bored tone to her voice. "Leave them. They're trying to get to me. In fact..."

She instructed the Commander on what to do. It took a mere five minutes. When it was done, she sat back and allowed a smile to cross her face.

_The spider strikes._

~x~

It was pitch black when Jakuelynn and Deimin entered the Palace. She shifted her night-vision goggles from her forehead to her eyes. To her surprise, there were boxes upon boxes of what looked like ammunition.

"We're in the Munitions Room," Deimin whispered, clearing everything up. Jakuelynn immediately set her powerful limbs to work, picking up double the maximum of ammo needed. She had a feeling she would need it in spades much later.

"Viking Queen, this is Big Daddy and Orange Lightning. Come in, Viking Queen,"

"Viking Queen receiving, Big Daddy." Jakuelynn allowed herself a grin at her father and Daxter's respective choices of call name. "What's your location?"

Her father said two words that froze her spine. "The Chamber."

Jakuelynn felt her lungs closing up. "Big Daddy, why are you there?"

"It was as per the instructions I was given –"

"Oh _shit_, it's a trap," Deimin whispered.

"Big Daddy, Orange Lightning, back up, get the _fuck_ out of there!" Jakuelynn's voice rose. "It's a trap!"

"Uhh, Jak?" she heard Daxter whimper.

"Big Daddy out," Jak said hurriedly, before Jakuelynn's communicator buzzed. She shut off and grabbed Deimin's arm, wrenching the door open and her goggles off her eyes...straight into a sea of Krimzon Guards.

First she saw red and black.

Then she saw all black.

~x~

"Number Two, respond, respond,"

"Two in, who's this?" Torn snatched up the communicator, flattening himself against the wall, icy blue eyes scanning for Krimzon Guards.

"Demon One-Oh-One. There's been a situation,"

"What _kind _of situation, One-Oh-One?" Torn asked urgently, yanking the trigger at an oncoming Guard, who flopped to the floor immediately.

"The First Wave have all disappeared. All of them. There's no response from their comms, I think they've been taken to the Chamber,"

Torn froze.

"They just took Viking Queen and –"

"And Jak?" Torn said, forgetting to use the call name.

"Him too. We need the Third Wave in."

"Say no more. Two out," Torn said, cutting the young man off. Firing more rounds at oncoming Krimzon Guards, he ducked behind a pillar and opened a channel. "HQ, come in, this is Number Two,"

"HQ in, what's the situation, Two?"

"The First Wave have all been captured – " Torn broke off to spray more bullets at oncoming Guards, feeling a flex of satisfaction as they made their homes in flesh. "They've been captured and taken to the Chamber. The Second Wave are buckling, we need the Third,"

"Got it, Two. Third will reach you as soon as possible. HQ out,"

"Two out." Torn shut off his communicator and skidded out from the pillar, taking aim at more Guards as another of the Second Wave was taken down.

~x~

Roah hummed happily to herself as she observed the members of the Underground in cells on their own. Mar was her main concern and he was starting to awaken just as she got to him. _Mar at 12 o'clock_, she thought idly to herself.

His eyes snapped open and changed the second he saw her, as did the rest of him. He sprang up, attempting to claw her, but she smoothly stepped back out of his reach when he did.

"Now, now. Is that _really _a way to treat your hostess?"

"_Hostess?_" the man snarled, reverting back to his normal self. "How about torturer? Murderer? Theif?"

"Oh, Mar, you give me far too much credit." Roah lightly put a hand to her chest as if flattered. "Like I told you eighteen years ago, everything I do is purely in the interest of Haven,"

"Like eradicating half its inhabitants?" he demanded angrily.

"It wasn't _eradication_. More like, h'm..._cleansing_." Roah resumed her tour of the cells. "Besides, yours wasn't the only family I had the KG dealt with. However, your family was the only one whom I dealt with personally." She stopped, back in front of him. "Such a shame though. Your wife, Keira, I understand?" She smiled as his whole body clenched in anger again. "Brainy _and _beautiful. She would have been useful. And your _son_, your sole heir. I bet he would have grown up to be just like you. Damas, I understand his name was...?"

"You do _not _speak their names! Ever!" Jak roared.

"Yes, Damas. Such a beautiful little boy. But of course, he's just dust and bones now. Did you see your family, Mar? Did you see the fear in their eyes?" Roah sighed, lifting her eyes to the ceiling. "Did you see the way they crumpled to the ground after my guards shot them? The blood collecting, pooling from their bodies? Of course you did. You _let _them fall. You could have saved them, Mar, but YOU let them die!"

"That's _enough_, Roah!" Jakuelynn yelled.

"Oh, but of course, there was always YOU!" Roah snarled, Dark Eco crackling around her entire body. "You could have been the perfect weapon. All those hormones I had slipped into your food? They worked on your body, but they didn't work on your mind, obviously,"

"You put _hormones_ in my food?" The Dark Eco in Jakuelynn's system was creeping into her blood cells. "Let me guess...growth hormones? Male hormones?"

"So you _do _have a brain. Well done, Jakuelynn!" Roah clapped slowly. "But no. You – YOU, a _slip _of a girl – you fucked up all my plans for this city. For this entire world!"

"So that's why you took her," Jak snarled.

"Careful, _Archduchess_," Jakuelynn sneered. "You're using common language. You're losing your cool. Then again, when you started injecting yourself with Dark Eco, you already started losing it, didn't you?"

"How _dare _you!" Roah snarled, her Dark side taking over.

"No, how dare YOU think you can play Precursors with people and their lives!" Jakuelynn screamed, her Darker side exploding into view. She wrenched the bars of the cell as if they were made of rubber instead of the toughest Precursor metal-infused compound and lunged at the Archduchess with her long black claws.

Jak watched the fight from his cell, helpless...or so he thought, until Dark Roah wrenched the injector from the large torture machine to her left and plunged it into Dark Jakuelynn's chest, burying it deeply. There was an animalistic howl of pain and the young woman reverted to her normal self, clutching her heart. A piece of the injector was sticking out from it, straight from her heart.

"_**JAKUELYNN**_!" her father roared, instantly turning into Dark Jak just as Roah reverted back to her normal self. She watched, wide-eyed, as he wrenched the bars apart and came thundering for her. She scrabbled to her feet and started running away from him...straight into the barrel of a very, very big gun.

"That's ENOUGH, Roah _Praxis_!" Torn snarled. "Stand the _fuck_ down!"


	28. Twenty Seven

**A/N: Double update, because I'm so nice. Well, after an epically long labour of love, there it is! Thank you all for following this through to the bitter end, especially to jakxkeiraaddict, Memoirs of a Red Shade, The Beckster and especially marneus90, for being the Day to my Jakuelynn and keeping me going with your support, humour, tea and late-night talks. I love you :D ~ Mika**

**PS: Lyrics at the bottom are also not mine.**

"Did you just say..._Roah Praxis?_" Jak asked incredulously as he reverted back to his normal self. From behind Torn, Deimin appeared, looking frantic. "He had another kid?"

"Where's Jakuelynn?" he demanded, before he finally saw her. His jaw dropped and he rushed over to her writhing form, purple lightning shooting out of it. He had some medical knowledge, but he'd never had to deal with a piece of machinery sticking out of his Dark Eco-tainted best friend's chest before. She looked at him wildly, pupils contracted with pain.

"Not only another child, but Ashelin's twin sister. Oh no you don't!" Torn snarled as Roah tried to make her escape. Jak quickly slid in there and held her in a very tight armlock, wanting to kill her quickly so he can tend to Jakuelynn.

"_Twin _sister?" Yuhmer suddenly piped up from a cell.

"Ashelin never said she had a twin, and no wonder," Torn continued. "Roah and Ashelin were separated when they were just three months old, as soon as the Baron discovered Roah's telepathic powers and saw the dangers present within them. Roah was sent away to a foster family in Spargus. Twenty years later, she finds out whom her real father was, why she was sent away – oh, and her twin sister now rules Haven. She's very, very pissed off, spending the next five or ten years working up a coup to overthrow Ashelin and the subsequent twenty years emulating her father's tyranny. Isn't that right, _Archduchess?_"

Roah snarled, unable to say anything. They had found her Achilles' heel, just as she'd always feared. She had always succeeded in dropping her surname, but Torn, in his time as her double agent, had caught it and held it up to the light for all to see.

"Keep hold of her, I'll see to the others," Torn said. He looked over to the clairvoyant boy, who had his hands over Jakuelynn's wound and his eyes closed. "I think Deimin's tending to Jakuelynn. It's fine."

"If I lose my daughter, it's on your hands!" Jak snarled, tightening his grip on Roah. He marched her over to the other side of the room, pinning her to the wall with a hand to her throat. "I've been told it's wrong for men to hit women. You, however, are no woman."

He drew back his free fist, making sure she saw the unspeakable anger and fury in his eyes.

"This is for the family you butchered," he hissed as he drove his fist home.

~x~

"Deimin, what are you doing?" Jakuelynn screamed as more purple-tinged blood leaked from her body.

"Hold still, Jakuelynn, just hold still," Deimin soothed. He felt all the available Light Eco rushing from deep underground towards him. The ground shook with the impact, walls and windows giving way as it all rushed to Deimin, filling him up. Despite her unimaginable pain, Onin's prophecy flashed in Jakuelynn's mind.

_...a new strength to the Piper in the form of one who dreams of certainties..._

"Nelly, look at me, let me know you're still alive!" Deimin shouted over the noise. She locked eyes with him – her best friend, her brother, her boyfriend. "I'm going to pull the needle out and try and heal the wound, okay? Brace yourself!"

Jakuelynn nodded, squeezing her eyes shut as Deimin pulled the needle out in one swift motion. She screamed in agony but the Light Eco flooded into her body, regenerating cells and knitting tissue back together. Her convulsions and screams of pain became twitches and whimpers, gasps and finally, she was simply breathing heavily. Deimin sat back on his heels as she regained her breath and opened her eyes, feeling her chest in astonishment. There was a cross-shaped scar which she knew would never heal, but other than that, there was nothing else to suggest she'd just been stabbed. She looked at the young man.

"Day, you're an Attractor? Why didn't you tell me?" she gasped.

"There was never an appropriate time," the young man smiled, pulling her to her feet. Just then, Torn returned with the keys, managing to quickly unlock the cell doors and free everyone...even Yuhmer, much to Jakuelynn's disappointment. He looked at Jakuelynn and pouted.

"Bloody Dark Eco freak," he muttered. "And you, Goth boy. Since when have you been an Attractor?"

Jakuelynn stiffened, reaching for her Morph Gun.

"There's no time for that now!" Torn said. He looked over to Jak, whom was still busy exacting his vengeance upon the woman who'd destroyed so many lives. Jakuelynn ran over to him and he quickly stopped.

"Father, no. She needs a taste of her own medicine. Pummelling the life out of someone was never her style."

Jak nodded, mouth twisting. "You're right, I suppose."

"Here, tough guy. You're gonna need these," Daxter panted, dragging along a set of handcuffs.

"Thanks, Dax," Jak smiled. "Jakuelynn, would you?"

"I'd be delighted," the young woman growled, restraining Roah as her father handcuffed the older woman. "Tell me, Roah. Your hatred of humanity. Your jealousy of secure families. The torture and murder of thousands. This was all because you had _daddy issues?_"

Roah snarled. "You will never understand, Jakuelynn Mar."

"No, and I have no desire to understand either." Jakuelynn stepped back as her father forced her to the floor. "Rhogan, are all the doors to the outside of the room locked?"

The young man tested all the doors and confirmed it to be so. Jak forced Roah on her bottom against the wall, making sure she couldn't escape. Just then, Torn's comm. buzzed.

"Number Two, this is Number One on behalf of the Third Wave. Come in, Two, give me your location,"

"Two in," Torn confirmed, wondering what Lei was doing with the Third Wave. "The First and Second Wave are in the Chamber. The Hawk has been subdued, she is no longer a threat." _At least, I hope so_, he thought to himself, wondering why Roah hadn't attempted to use her telepathic powers on them. Maybe she was subdued enough to understand not to use them, or that last shot of Dark Eco she'd had had twisted her mind so much that it had impaired her powers.

"Good work, Number Two. We'll be along soon. One out."

Torn clicked off his communicator and looked outside where the window, broken by Light Eco, used to be. It was almost pitch black outside, a low rumble foretelling a storm. Rain started falling, a strong wind blowing it into the Chamber, hitting all present.

"Archduchess Roah Praxis!" Jakuelynn began, her voice ringing over the rolling thunder. The rain fell faster and heavier. "I am giving you a choice as to where you go after tonight. You leave Haven and never return. You do not interfere with how the city is run after your leaving. If you come within a thousand miles of this city, whomever is in charge of it has permission to shoot to kill. Do you understand me?"

The Archduchess nodded, sniffing.

"On the other hand," Jakuelynn continued, a slight grin quirking a corner of her mouth, "I put a bullet between your pretty blue eyes and you go straight to Hell, where you belong, and I'm sure most of the Underground would like to see you go there. So, what will it be?"

Jak approached her, his hand on her shoulder. "Jakuelynn, are you sure this is good idea?"

"You would have shot her on the spot, wouldn't you?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Without so much as a breath,"

"I was never given much choice in my life and neither was she, really. Let's just give her this one choice." Jakuelynn turned her attentions back to the fallen Archduchess, whose chuckles had grown into a low laugh. "Well, Roah? What's it to be? Surrender or die?"

"I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees to the likes of _you!_" Roah snarled.

"Sorted." Jakuelynn strode over to the twisted woman, crouching down, staring the Archduchess in the eye before standing back up again. "Goodbye, Erlaucht Roah Praxis, daughter of Baron Praxis. Dictatress of Haven, wife of Zainen, murderer, traitor...Need I go on?"

Roah shook her head, hauling herself to her feet. _Dying on her feet, just like her word_, Jakuelynn observed, standing by her father and shouldering the Morph Gun. She switched it to the Blaster to take out the head of the cockroach of Haven's evil.

"This is for everyone you have ever subjected to your blood-lust!" Jakuelynn snarled, aiming it at Roah's head and yanking the trigger. The gun jolted and shuddered in her hands, as if gleefully playing its part in the Archduchess' execution. Everyone present immediately remembered the executions of their families – those who remembered it, that is – and a surge of resolution swept their bodies as Jakuelynn stopped firing.

The gun steamed in her hands and yellow smoke tumbled around and over the Palace roof just as the clouds finally buckled and opened under torrents of rain. The sound of more heavy footsteps grew louder and louder until the entire Krimzon Guard force burst out into the Chamber. Pure robot, no humans at all present in the force. _Perfect_, Jakuelynn thought as the Underground shouldered their weapons.

"Hey, boys!" she yelled. "Over here!" As soon as she had the entire force's attention, she switched the Morph again and let rip with the Vulcan Fury. The Underground quickly followed suit, firing on the Guard, dodging out the way. They closed in on Jakuelynn and she was getting closer and closer to the perilously high edge of the broken window, quickly running out of ground...

"JAKUELYNN!" Deimin yelled over the mêlée. "THE JET BOARD!"

Without another word, she whipped out her Jet Board and kicked it into life, zooming over the swarm of Guards, continuing to shoot. She was almost out of ammo when she felt something inside of her. Instead of the feeling of icy coldness Dark Eco brought before a transformation, she only felt a burning warmth. Her limbs were glowing as well – glowing _white_. Soon, her whole body was glowing white; she stood out like a white sun in a stormy sky.

She kicked the Board back outside the window frame and instinctively put her hands together, shooting a white fireball at the Krimzon Guard crowd as they fell out the Palace like a mechanical coloured waterfall. The Light Eco reacted like a nuclear bomb, its aftershocks causing damage only to the Palace, but it managed to destroy the entire Krimzon Guard force immediately. She touched back down to the rest of the Underground and, feeling the rumblings of the weakened Palace, expanded the Jet Board so everyone else could get on. She guided it to another roof a safe distance away from the trembling Palace, touching down just in time for the structure to collapse completely, taking with it every reminder of the twenty-five-year grip of evil that had held Haven tightly.

Jakuelynn breathed out in wonder, staring at her hands, trying to work out how she had managed to not only conduct White Eco, but destroy the entire KG and a Palace with it in addition to working out how Deimin was gifted with being an Attractor. Jak laughed delightedly, hugging his daughter so hard she couldn't breathe.

_You're the Piper who leads the rats out of Haven._

"My turn, Big Daddy," Deimin said, wrapping his arms around his best friend and giving her another long, deep kiss before she expected it.

"HEY!" Daxter yelled. "That's ENOUGH of that shit!"

Jakuelynn closed her eyes, managing to return the kiss and flip Daxter off at the same time. This was one glorious moment which Daxter was _not _going to ruin. Just as they broke off, she felt a growing warmth on her face.

"Would you look at that," Jak whispered in wonder.

Jakuelynn and Deimin turned and saw a pale orange light over the horizon of the Wasteland beyond the city walls. This light grew, collecting more colour until finally, it exploded in a palette of oranges, pinks, reds and yellows, with even a little blue and green around the top.

"The first sunrise in Haven for thirty years!" Rhogan gasped. "I thought it was just a legend..."

"Much like the Attractors. Deimin, you have been blessed by the Precursors. Ensure you use it wisely over your life," Lei told the young man, who nodded.

Jakuelynn laughed, looking at Deimin as he linked his fingers with hers. She felt a hand squeeze her shoulder and looked round to see her father looking more relaxed than anyone had known.

"I'm proud of you, Viking Queen," he said, kissing her forehead. "You came through,"

"Yeah," Jakuelynn replied reflectively, turning her face back to the sunset. "I guess I did in the end."

The group of fighters stood there watching the sun rise, each lost in their own thoughts and plans. They had done their work. The sun had risen on a new era, free of the oppressive Archduchess and her insatiable blood-lust.

"Jakuelynn, my dear," Lei said warmly. "I'm sure your father told you, but you now have a choice to make. The thrones of Haven and Spargus are yours if you desire them now that the evil in Haven has been vanquished."

"M-_mine_?" Jakuelynn stuttered.

"All yours, little one," Jak said affectionately. "You do have a choice about whom they go to if you don't want them. No, not me!" he laughed as his daughter looked at him. "That ship was never in the harbour."

Jakuelynn took a deep breath and took advantage of the choice she had been given for the first time in her eighteen years. She thought about it long and hard over the next few weeks, weighing out the pros and cons. It made her head hurt but it was worth it for the feeling, after announcing her final choice, she had of making the right decision.

With the decision she made, she hoped Haven would never see another like Roah again.

_I am always there with me, and I'll know what yesterday brings._

_("Record Collector", Lissie)_


	29. Epilogue

_**Seven years later, Sandover City (formerly known as Haven City)**_

Jakuelynn pulled the door open and slammed it shut, breathing deeply. The Zoomer was parked, the sun was shining, the air was clean and Deimin was cooking something that smelt amazing. Again.

She was home.

"He-hey, look who it is!" Daxter yelled delightfully. "Viking Queen!"

"Hey, Uncle Dax," Jakuelynn laughed.

"Oh _Dax-terrrr_..." a purring female voice called from upstairs. "I'm getting _hungry_ again..."

The ottsel's ears stood up, a big excited grin on his face. "I gotta go. Tess and I have a lot of years to catch up on,"

"I understand. Go!" the young woman commanded, a laugh in her voice. Tess and Daxter had reunited some years ago after Tess finally realised she was still in love with the irrepressible ottsel and dumped her toy boy. Or, in Daxter's words, "she realised that nobody can beat _me_ between the sheets."

Deimin flung himself into Jakuelynn's arms, giving her a long, deep, probing kiss. Once he slid his tongue out of her mouth, he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. "Is the world safe again?"

"It is, Day," she whispered, chuckling. "At least, until it gets itself into trouble again and our great leader Rhogan commands me to save it. Oh, and you _have_ to come with me on my next trip out."

"Oh no, Nelly. Adventure is not for me," Deimin protested.

"Aw, c'mon." Jakuelynn cocked her head to one side, making her eyes look deliberately big. "Me without you is like Jak without Daxter,"

"Wha' wazza' 'bout me?" Jak yawned, strolling in to the hall.

"Sorry, Father, did we wake you?" Jakuelynn grinned.

"Course you didn't, you never do. It was Daxter's creaking bed springs that woke me up." Jak jerked a thumb up where, sure enough, the bed springs were creaking once again. "So. You two discussing marriage plans or were you too busy conducting dental examinations with your tongues?"

"Marriage plans?" Jakuelynn echoed. "Are you still keen on us getting married?"

"Well, you two have been together for a million years..."

"Seven, Father, seven,"

"I do wish you wouldn't call me 'Father', it sounds so formal. Ahh, I'll leave you to it." Jak wandered off back into the living room, muttering to himself.

"Your dad is funny," Deimin whispered, tilting his head to one side.

"Sometimes he can be deadly serious," Jakuelynn countered. _Like I'm having to be now_, she thought, feeling a lead weight sink into her stomach. "Deimin..."

"What?" He saw a cloud settle over her face and he let go of her neck, dropping to the floor.

"Let's go upstairs, I have something to tell you," she said, and her tone was hushed. He stared at her for a minute before he realised that this was not going to lead to sex.

"Nelly, what's up?"

He took her hand and ascended the stairs with her, going into their room and sitting on the bed. For once, her eloquence failed her, but when she did get the words out, he froze solid, his eyes wide.

"S-something else I...I discovered when I was out there too," she said, not looking at him. "Sangre Eraux Ghosten, your father?"

Deimin nodded. "What about him?"

"He's alive."

~x~

_**Undisclosed location**_

"Just a few more screws..."

The cyborg growled in frustration. The rebuilding had taken a decade of painstaking processes and, indeed, pain, more than it had endured in that last year before the accident that had caused this lengthy process of rehabitation, and indeed, rebuilding. The mechanic drilled the screw into the back and unconsciously dusted it off, stepping back.

"Finished!"

The cyborg whirred as it moved its new mechanical limbs. Its human eyes narrowed, and one can safely say that it was no longer recognisable as its fully human self, nor even recognisable as being male or female. It clenched its fist, drew its arm back and created a new opening in the walls of the room it had spent many long years in. Finally, it was finished.

Finally, it could get its revenge.

**THE END**

**FINAL NOTE: So. After this Romance, Humour, Drama, Adventure, Mystery, Horror, Angst, Supernatural, Suspense, Tragedy, Family, Hurt/Comfort and Friendship fic with tinges of Western and maybe Crime (I told you it covered many genres!), I only have one question for you, my fellow "J&D" fanatics/ fanfic readers. The fate of my next fanfic lies solely with a simple yes or no to the following:**

**Sequel?**

**~ MikaHaeli8**


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